Destiny Takes Its Toll
by Gianna Sparrow
Summary: The action packed adventures of yours truly. The young Alex Waters is plunged into the world of magic, with ups and downs and the occasional day filled with kong-fu fighting and kicking butt, in the end, it all boils down to: Who's more bad ass?
1. Chapter 1

**DISCLAIMER: I do not own any of the character you recognise, only my many OC's.**

**Enjoy!**

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><p>A young girl who looked fifteen, maybe sixteen exited a bus. She had beautiful long golden blonde hair that fell in soft waves, there was a reddish-pink streak in it and the locks framed her face perfectly. She wore black suede ankle boots, dark blue skinny-jeans, a white tang-top with lace edges and a black cardigan.<p>

She walked down the street, into a coffee shop called 'A Taste Of Heaven' and went up to a table with a very tired looking girl her age sitting at it.

"Hi Alex," the girl sitting at the table said grumpily, she had long brown straight hair and was wearing ballerina-flats, jeans and a long sleeved red shirt.

"Hi Ronny, what's with the long face?" Alex asked curiously.

"My brother threw one of his wild parties again."

"And your parents didn't know?"

"No, they went to England on holiday a week ago… wait… haven't I told you this already?"

"Sorry, I forgot."

"You're forgiven, anyway, how was your day?"

"Average; got up, got ready, went to school, school ended, went home, did homework, took shower, went to bed, woke up, got ready for school, then realised it was Saturday and that I had just wasted half an hour of my life packing books, came here, and now I'm telling you how my day was."

"Only you can explain thirty-something hours in ten seconds,"

"What can I say, I have talent,"

"Ha ha, very funny Alex,"

"OK, we have to start work in a few minutes."

"Fine..." said Ronny, she clearly didn't like the thought of spending her Saturdays working in a coffee shop to pay off the debt from that time when they both went on a mad shopping spree together and bought five-hundred euro designer shoes each. Neither did Alex, but desperate times call for desperate measures.

They both put their aprons on and Alex tied her hair up in a sleek pony-tail, they stood behind the counter hoping someone would walk in soon.  
>Eventually some people arrived, a bunch of regulars. They ordered some smoothies and sat down, chatting their heads off. The group stayed for half an hour then left, leaving the bill on the counter.<p>

"And that is three euros from those guys, pity that the boss gets three quarters of it," said Alex, upset at how little they were getting when they did all the work.

"Oh well, life isn't always fair," muttered Ronny.

And so the day went on, people came, paid and left. About three hours before closing time Ronny remembered something.

"Alex, I completely spaced!"

"What is it?" Alex asked.

"My parents are coming back from vacation today! The house is a mess!"

"Oh shit!"

"Sorry, I have to go! You can handle the place by yourself, right?"

Alex hesitated "Uh… yeah, I'll be fine. Go! Or you and your brother are gonna get grounded!"

"Kay," she said, taking her apron off and grabbing her bag. "Or you sure you'll be alright?"

"Don't worry about me, hurry!"

"Bye Alex!" Ronny yelled as she ran out the door.

"Bye Ronny!" Alex called after her.

"_Great, she's gone and ditched me, now she's getting paid when I'm doing her job for her."_ Alex thought _"OK, well, technically I kinda offered to do it but… no, don't start siding with her, she still owes me from that time I bought her food when she forgot her lunch money!"  
><em>Alex got lost in her thoughts, eventually dosing off on the counter.

She was brought back from her thought into reality about an hour later.  
>Alex immediately stood up straight, pretending that she hadn't been sleeping at all.<br>A man walked in, followed by a girl possibly the same age as her, and a boy with ridiculously spiky blonde hair, she was dubbing him as 'Hair Boy'.

They were rather suspicious, the mans skin looked waxy, in an unreal sense that Alex found disturbing, he had neat dark brown hair and wore a suit, "_Maybe he's in the Mafia!"_ she thought.  
>The girl had a couple of bruises on her and looked very strong for her age, she had long black hair and was wearing black clothes of a fabric she didn't recognise, and Hair Boy, well, his title says it all.<p>

They sat down at a table in the far corner, and began talking with their voices lowered. She thought she could make out one of them calling the man in the suit 'Fowl-Muggery' or something similar.  
>Alex walked up to them to take their order. Hair Boy was gazing at her dreamily.<p>

"What would you like?" Alex asked them.

"Nothing," said the man, his voice was like velvet, it made her feel as though she could listen to it all day, but that wasn't going to make any difference.

"Look, if aren't ordering anything then you can't stay here,"

"I said n…" the girl chipped in "I'll have a strawberry milkshake," she said cheerfully.

"You?" Alex asked Hair Boy.

"Same," he answered; he was still looking at her like that.

"And you?" she asked the man impatiently.

"Are you deaf? I clearly said nothing."

"Fine, be that way," she mumbled as she walked of.

She came back five minutes later with the drinks, laying them down gently on the table.

"You're pretty," Hair Boy said, practically drooling.

"Fletcher!" the dark haired girl shouted, slapping him hard on the face and messing up his hair in the process.

"Hey! Watch the hair!" he yelled, trying to sculpt it back into his original form.

"Don't mind him, he does this whenever he meets someone knew," the girl said to Alex apologetically.

"Don't worry, I get that a lot from… spiky haired boys," Alex said backing away from the odd group.

"_Hmm, Fletcher, F-l-e-t-c-h-e-r, I prefer Hair Boy,"_ she thought to herself.

They were taking as long as possible on those milkshakes; they obviously had a lot to talk about.

Another man walked in, he looked shaggy and stank, as if he had been sleeping in a sewer for a week. His clothed were ripped and Alex could see evidence of blood on him. _"He's probably some homeless dude"_ she thought. The group in the corner were staring at him.

"Not again…" she could here the man in the suit mumble.

"I demand free coffee!" the homeless dude yelled at her.

"I'm afraid we don't serve hobo's here," she told him as kindly as she could.

"I am the Killer Supreme! You cannot deny me something!"

"Yeah and I'm Hannah Montana," Alex said sarcastically. The dark haired girl started giggling.

"Give me my free beverages!"

"Look, we both want something, you want free coffee, and I want a raise. But we both know that we aren't going to get, we can simply dream for now."

"How dare you cheek the Killer Supreme!" he yelled, banging his fist on the counter. Hair Boy was giggling with the girl now.

"Leave her alone Scapegrace!" the girl shouted at him.

When he saw her there he instantly ran off screaming "I am the Killer Supreme!" unfortunately for him, he hadn't realised that that the door was closed. He hit it face first, sprawling on the floor with his left arm falling off. He got back up, picked up his arm feeling no pain what so ever, opened the door and ran out screaming "Killer Supreme!"

Alex looked horrified, "Will someone catch me if I faint?" she asked.

"Probably not," the man in the suit said.

"Oh well…" she mumbled quietly as she fell to the ground. They all just stared at her unconscious body.

"I'm guessing we have some explaining to do…" Hair Boy said.

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><p><strong>DISCLAIMER: My brother (Known on the site as 'ALEXANDRO') came up with the idea of Scapegrace hitting the door face first. He has agreed to give me all his ideas, though I usually just use mine anyway.<strong>

**Please review!**


	2. Chapter 2

"Skulduggery, how are we supposed to wake her up?" asked Valkyrie.

"Beats me," he answered.

"Ooh! I know!" yelled Fletcher.

"What?" asked Skulduggery.

"I'll give her the kiss of life!"

"Fletcher, don't you dare…" Valkyrie shouted, but she was already too late…

Alex awoke with blurry vision, but from what she could tell, there seemed to be a strange spiky creature with its lips pressed onto hers.

"W-why's there a porcupine kissing me?" she asked/yelled. She could make out a black mop glaring at the porcupine.

"I'm not a porcupine, my name is Fletcher,"

Alex could see fine by now. "Then why was a complete stranger kissing me?"

"I wasn't, you were unconscious and I was giving you air," what she could now see was a teenaged boy with stupid hair said, smiling mischievously. "More like sucking face," she could hear a girl mutter angrily.

"Where'd you learn how to do that?" asked a strange looking man in a suit.

"French class!" Hair Boy said giggling.

"Fletcher, get away fro, her! You're my boyfriend, and I don't want you going near her!" the dark haired girl yelled at him.

"Yes honey," he said sadly.

"Don't worry about them, they'll go on like this forever," said the man in the suit, his face looked like it was made of wax and he was incredibly skinny, "Do you remember what happened before you fainted?"

"No, nothing… wait… yes, it's coming back to me now," Alex said rubbing her head "I-I was here, working, an-and you came here w-with that girl and Hair Boy looking very suspicious, and then there was this man, I think he was a hobo, he was demanding something… free coffee, that's what it was, then he started calling himself some name…"

"Was it the 'Killer Supreme'?" the man asked, he looked like he was about to drop down on his knees and start praying that it wasn't.

"Yes, that's it, an-and then that girl," she pointed to the girl with long black hair "Sh-she told him to leave me alone, and he just left, b-but he hit the door, a-an-and his arm just fell of! he d-didn't feel anything, he p-picked it up and left, and... I don't remember what happened next… and now I'm here…"

"You fainted with shock, but never mind what happened, I have some people to introduce you to," he helped her up onto her feet, and guided her over to where Hair Boy was now being forced to get down on his knees and apologise to the girl.

"Ahghem… Fletcher, Valkyrie, stop it, we have more important things to be doing."

"Sorry Skulduggery," they both said.

"Now what's your name?" the man asked her.

"Alex,"

"OK, Alex, my name is Skulduggery Pleasant, and this is Valkyrie Cain," he said, pointing to the girl, "and that's Fletcher Renn," he pointed at Hair Boy.

"N-nice to meet you, Skulduggery, Valkyrie, and a… Fletcher, I'm just going to stick with calling you Hair Boy, I've gotten used to calling that now,"

"Fine…" he grumbled.

"So Alex, that man you saw, the one who's arm fell of, he's a zombie named 'Vaurien Scapegrace',"

"Z-zombie?" she asked, frightened.

"Don't worry, he is by far the most pathetic excuse for a bad guy in history," Valkyrie said to her.

"Oh, well that's good to know, but, since when do zombies actually exist?" Alex asked.

"How do I put this… We live in a world filled with magic, and zombies happen to be part of it," Skulduggery said.

"Magic?" she asked dumbfounded.

"Valkyrie, demonstrate,"

Valkyrie clicked her fingers, producing a flame, and with the other hand she used a ring to make a tendril of shadows, with the shadows she picked up one of the shop tables. "I'm an elemental and a necromancer,"

"Whoa! That is so cool!" Alex said staring at Valkyrie's hands, "How'd you do that?"

"Magic," she said grinning.

"And what can you do?" she asked Fletcher.

"I'm a teleporter, let me show you," said Fletcher, he grabbed her hand and they immediately disappeared and reappeared on the other side of the room, then back again. It made Alex feel queasy, but she still enjoyed it.

"That… is… Awesome! And you?" she asked Skulduggery.

"Elemental, I can control all the different elements, fire, air, water and earth, I am also _other _things," he said nervously.

"Like what?"

He reached his hand down his shirt collar and tapped something. The skin on his face shrank back down into whatever he had tapped, revealing that he was a mere skeleton.

"Oh… my… god," Alex said disgusted. She slowly walked up to him and stared into one of his eye sockets. She reached her hand up and stuck it inside his head, staring in through the other socket now. Fletcher was giggling.

"Ow! Stop it! That hurts!" she took her hand out his head instantly.

"You can feel pain?" Alex asked.

"Unfortunately, yes,"

"And how do you think? 'Cause I mean, I stuck my hand in there, and I pretty sure you didn't have a brain,"

"I don't know how I can think!" he said, clutching his eye socket.

"And you don't have a heart?"

"No, I have no organs"

"You must be a really cold person if you have no heart," Fletcher was laughing uncontrollably now, "If you don't have a heart, doesn't that mean you're dead?"

"Yes,"

"For how long?"

"Over four-hundred years now,"

"Wow, I can't believe I'm meeting a living fossil, cool." She hung onto the last word for a while, letting it eventually drift away. Fletcher had gone into hysterics.

"Y-you called him a living fossil!" he laughed, "And said that he had no brain! And that heart thing!" he was rolling around on the floor now.

Everyone just ignored him, "So magic is everywhere?" Alex asked.

"Everywhere," Skulduggery answered.

"And can I do magic?" she asked curiously.

"We don't know about that yet, see, it depends, not everyone can actually do magic, it's more of a genetic thing. Though you can give it a shot,"

"When can I start?"

"Tomorrow, Valkyrie and I will pick you up at whatever time you choose, where do you live? "

"Nine o'clock, St. Peters avenue in Haggard,"

"That is so weird, I live two blocks away from there," Valkyrie said surprised.

"Oh, really, well that's nice,"

"We'll be in a 1954 Bentley R-type continental," said Skulduggery.

"A what?" Alex asked confused

"Look out for an old car," Valkyrie explained

"OK, well, we have to go now," Skulduggery said, looking down at his watch, "See you tomorrow Alex, oh, and I almost forgot, you cannot tell anyone about magic. No exceptions, no matter how much you want to," Valkyrie said sternly, as she helped Fletcher up off the floor.

"Alright, bye Valkyrie!"

"Bye…" Valkyrie forgot her name.

"Alex," Alex said, feeling a bit hurt.

"Bye Alex!"

The group left the coffee shop, leaving Alex practically jumping for joy.  
>She closed the shop, and began walking down to the bus-stop. Alex sat down on a bench, feeling as though she could jump up and scream "Yahoo!", but she didn't, because there were other people there and that would be really embarrassing.<p>

"Ronny would be so jealous," Alex thought, "Pity I can't tell her,"  
>The bus pulled up 15 minutes later, Alex hopped on and paid the driver. She went to the very last row of the bus and sat down next to a window.<p>

She was still so amazed that _magic_ of all things, was real. That there was this entire new world right there at the tips of her fingers, "_I wish I'd known about it sooner," _she thought. She went on thinking about all the events that had occurred today, the creepy zombie-hobo, fainting, discovering magic, meeting a skeleton, it was all to much to take in.

The bus stopped by her house and Alex got off. It was late, and the sun had already gone down. She went up to her front door and unlocked it. Putting her keys back in her handbag, she walked in. Her dogs Lulu and Dreamsmasher ran up and jumped on her. They were both brother ad sister little Jack-Russell puppies.

Hi Lulu! Hi Dreamsmasher! Aaaw! You guys are sooo cute! I could just eat you up!"

Her mother appeared at the top of the staircase; she had brown hair in a short bob and wore a floral dress. She walked down the stairs cautiously, being careful not to trip on her heels.

"Hi Alex! I was just about to call you to see why you weren't here yet, where have you been?" her mother asked.

Alex quickly made up an excuse, "The bus came late,"

"Well, at least you're safe," she said giving her a hug.

"Yeah, that's the most important thing. Mum, can I go to bed early today, I'm feeling a bit tired, Ronny had to go because her parents are arriving from England today, and the shop was really busy," she said, braking away from the hug.

"Oh alright, but surely you must be hungry, have a bite to eat first,"

Alex had actually forgotten how starving she was over all the commotion that day. "OK!" she yelled running to the kitchen.

She fixed herself up some snacks, gobbling them down as fast as she could. Alex ran up the stairs and up into her room.  
><em>"Wow, this place is a mess,"<em> she thought as she entered her room. She went to her bathroom and took a shower, changed into her pyjamas and hopped into bed.  
>Alex figured that the sooner she fell asleep, the sooner tomorrow would arrive. She eventually drifted off into the land of slumber, dreaming of how dumb 'Hair Boy' looked.<p>

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><p><strong>The next chapter will hopefully be better than the last two.<strong>

**Remeber to review!**

**~Giana Sparrow**


	3. Chapter 3

Alex awoke with the sun shining on her face. She quickly remembered her 'meeting' with Skulduggery and Valkyrie she had, and jumped out of bed. She went into her bathroom to take a shower, when she was finished she quickly changed into her favourite outfit; a long sleeved T-shirt the same reddish-pink colour as the streak in her hair with the words 'Heaven Doesn't Want Me And Hell's Afraid I'll Take Over' printed in jet black on it, ripped dark blue skinny jeans, and knee-high black leather boots.

Alex eyed herself in her mirror, _"I have to admit, I look good," _she thought to herself.

She walked out her room and into the hallway, bumping into her eleven year old brother.

"Hi Duncan!" she said cheerfully.

"Well someone's happy…" he said curiously.

"What can I say, I'm living the life,"

"Shut up,"

"Fine, sorry I can't stay and chat, but I made plans with someone," she said as she started climbing down the stairs.

"Kay, bye Alex!" he called after her.

"Bye!"

Alex hurried down the corridor and out the back door and into the garden. She could see someone peering their head around the hedge, two people in fact, one of them had waxy skin and the other had long dark hair. _"Oh, they're here already…"_ she thought to herself.

"Hi Skulduggery! Hi Valkyrie!"

"Hi Alex!" Valkyrie said. She came out from around the corner, though Skulduggery stayed hidden.

"Skulduggery, come out from there," Valkyrie shouted at him.

"No! I'm too scared!"

"There's nothing to be afraid of, come out!" said Alex.

"Oh alright, fine," and as soon as he stepped out from behind his post, two absolutely adorable Jack-Russell puppies jumped out of no where and started running towards him, "Ah! Puppies! My only weakness!" he screamed, utterly terrified.

The two puppies pounced on Skulduggery, trying to get a chunk of him out, "Hey! Ouch! My leg! Come back her with that!" he yelled at them, though instead of giving it back to him they started playing Fetch with it. Skulduggery's façade came of in the process.

"Aw! Your dogs are sooo cute!" squealed Valkyrie, "What're their names?"

"Lulu and Dreamsmasher," said Alex

"Why 'Dreamsmasher'?"

"My dad got to name him, he wanted a hamster,"

"Well, that explains it,"

"You, know, this isn't very discreet is it? 'Cause I mean my parents could easily just look out the window and see two dogs ripping up a talking skeleton, right?"

"True, very true,"

"Or even one of the neighbours,"

"Yeah, we should probably get them off him now,"

"Well, we can just watch the show so long, I mean, the two of them are working really hard to look this cute, even while mauling someone,"

"Yeah, we should, got any popcorn, this is starting to get good,"

"I've got a packet in my pocket, but it isn't cooked," Alex said as she pulled it out.

"Pass," Alex passed it over to her, Valkyrie clicked her fingers making a small flame and held it under the packet. It was ready a few seconds later and they began to dig in.

Alex started acting like one of those football announcers; "And, Dreamsmasher goes in for the chase, he's got Skulduggery pinned to the ground, ooh, he's got an arm, and what's this? Lulu is coming in from the rear, she's ready to pounce, and score! She's got his head! That's ten points for the puppies and zero for the skeleton! Skulduggery better watch out, 'cause those doggies are smoking!" she yelled in a voice that sounded a bit like 'Duffman' from 'The Simpsons'.

"Please! Get them off me!" Skulduggery yelled as the two dogs started chewing his head.

"OK, Alex, we should get them off him now, he's in agony," said Valkyrie, sounding a bit concerned.

"Yup, I agree, if we carry on like this I'll never have time for my lesson," Alex said as she walked up to the puppies. "Lulu, Dreamsmasher, time out," they whimpered and she almost felt sorry for them, then she remembered that they'd just been torturing someone. "Sorry guys, but you have to stop attacking him now," the two of them walked off, turning around every once and a while to see if Alex and Valkyrie would fall for puppy eyes. They didn't and the adorable bundles of joy eventually disappeared out of sight.

Valkyrie approached the remains of what was once Skulduggery Pleasant, "Are you alright?" she asked the head.

"I can see the light…"

"You are so faking it, Alex, help me put him back together," Alex walked up to the pile of bones and gaped at it.

"How am I supposed to know where everything goes?"

"Good point, Skulduggery, you're going to have to put yourself back together,"

"I hate you…" he mumbled. He eventually finished, though his suit was ripped and he looked incredibly scruffy.

They walked across the road an over to a 1954 Bentley R-type Continental. It was sleek and black, a beautiful car, though it was a tad bit old fashioned.

"Whoa, when you said an old car you really meant an old car…" Alex said as she stared at it.

"Don't insult my car! It is beautiful and it always will be! No matter how old it gets!" Skulduggery said feeling insulted.

"I never said it wasn't,"

"Say sorry,"

"But I didn't do anything!"

"Say sorry," he said slower this time as if she were an idiot.

"Nuh uh!" she said shaking her head.

"Then I just won't give you your magic lesson,"

"Oh Skulduggery! I'm sooo sorry! I do anything to make up for it!"

"Now that's more like it,"

They got in and Skulduggery started the engine, the ride was silent other than Alex and Valkyrie's occasional chatter.  
>They arrived outside a large apartment building and stopped. The building was a bit dirty but it wasn't that bad.<p>

"What are we gonna do here?" Alex asked.

"We're going to the library," said Valkyrie.

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><p><strong>DISCLAIMER: My brother (Known on the site as 'ALEXANDRO') came up with the line 'Ah! Puppies! My only weakness!'.<strong>


	4. Chapter 4

**Sorry for any spelling and grammer mistakes in previous chapters, I was rushing so I didn't really have time to doble check them. I will try not to make as many in the following chapters as I did in the last three.**

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><p>They entered the building, it was dark and ugly, and Alex thought she could see mould in some corners. They began ascending the stairs. Skulduggery started filling her in on some important information.<p>

"We are going to a magical library we are going to, do not expect to be seeing normal people there," said Skulduggery.

"This is actually a library?"

"The third floor is, any way, moving to number two; the lady you will meet happens to be the most beautiful woman in the world. And I'm not saying that out of romantic interest, one look at her is enough to make someone do anything for her, even if it means death,"

"So does she have some spell on her to make her like that?" asked Alex.

"Yes, number three; do not under any circumstances tell her your name, no matter how much you want to,"

"Why?"

"Because she can, and most likely _will _you it against you,"

"How?"

Valkyrie answered this, "We'll go over that when we get there,"

Skulduggery resumed speaking, "Number four; you will to fall in love with her as soon as you meet her, no matter how much try not to, you will,"

"That… is… gross,"

"Tell me about it…" mumbled Valkyrie. They had reached the second floor by now, _"These stair cases are so long,"_ though Alex.

"Number five; not everyone you meet here is going to be exactly _pretty_, so just try not to be too rude to them, most magic people tend to bare the scars of their battles,"

"Scars, battles?"

"There was a war, many years ago, good against evil. Also, being magic tends to put you on top of every bad guys hit list,"

"Does that mean I'm putting my life in danger doing this?"

"Probably yes,"

"Well that's always nice to hear…"

"Number six; no funny business, we are here to teach you, not so you can mess around,"

"Is that everything?" Alex asked, this getting a bit too much for her to remember.

"Yes,"

They had arrived at the third floor now, it was clean and well lit, and looked as if it were an entirely different building from the floors. They walked up to the centre of the hallway, and only then did Alex notice that none of the doors were numbered.  
>Skulduggery knocked on a door that had a plaque with the word 'Library' written on it. A doorman opened it, he had dark hair and wore a bow-tie.<p>

"Good morning Mr Pleasant, I see you've brought a guest," the man said, stepping aside to let them pass.

"I have, she found out on a little unfortunate incident,"

"It seems like you have to tell someone new about us everyday…" he muttered.

The library was huge, with book shelves stretching as far as the eye could see. Skulduggery left the man and led Alex and Valkyrie through a maze of book shelves and into the centre of the room. A desk was situated there, with the most beautiful woman Alex had ever seen sitting at it. She had delicate features and eyes of the palest blue, mid-length raven black hair which was held in a messy bun, with the two front locks hanging loose. She wore a stunning white blouse, an emerald green pencil-skirt and black heels. Looking her made Alex feel clumsy, she felt as though she wanted to spend her entire life standing there and gaze at pure beauty. She was perfect in every possible way one could be.  
>The woman looked up from her work to greet them.<p>

"Good morning Skulduggery, Valkyrie and I don't think I've had the pleasure of meeting you," she said as she looked at Alex.

"My name's…" but Valkyrie and Skulduggery each gave her a sharp look and she immediately kept her mouth shut.

"My name's China Sorrows," the woman said.

"That's a beautiful name," said Alex, said dreamily.

"Why thank you," China said sweetly, she turned to Skulduggery "And may I ask what brings you here?"

"For her to study," he answered, tilting to his head towards Alex.

"Is she new at magic?"

"Hasn't even started yet,"

"Then I would recommend you start at the beginners isle," and at that she waved her hand and all the shelves rearranged themselves, bringing the shelf for beginners up next to them.

"Coooool," said Alex.

"It is indeed."

Alex, Valkyrie and Skulduggery went up to the shelf and began going through the books, while China went back to her work. Alex felt great sadness having to take her gaze of her.

"Valkyrie, you get adept and I'll get elemental," Skulduggery said to her.

"What does 'adept' mean?" asked Alex.

"I'll tell you when we sit down," said Valkyrie as she pointed at to a table and chairs.

Alex walked up to the table and sat down, wondering how long it would take to get all the books they wanted her to see. Valkyrie and Skulduggery came after a few minutes, each carrying a large pile of books. They both sat down next to her.

"OK, there are two different kinds of magic; elemental, which I have already told you about, and adept. Adept has many different branches while elementals can just control the elements." said Skulduggery, "For example; Fletcher…"

"You mean Hair Boy?"

"Yes, I mean Hair Boy, as I was saying; Fletcher is a teleporter which means he is an adept, Valkyrie is half elemental and half necromancer which means she is half adept, and I am an elemental. Understand?"

"Yes, but what exactly do adepts do?"

"As I said, there are many different adept branches; the general branch, teleporters, necromancers, shape shifters, the children of the spider, mind readers, psychics, symbol magic, and many others that I can't seem to remember,"

"So adepts have much more variety,"

"Yes, though it is more difficult. So what would you like to be?"

Alex thought about it for a moment, "Can't I be both? Like Valkyrie,"

"You can, but after a certain amount of time you have to choose between the two of them, and there isn't much point in learning to do two if you're not going to be able to use one of them later,"

"Then why did Valkyrie do it?"

"It's a long story," said Valkyrie.

"Well if you become adept can you control more than one branch?"

"Yes, though if you choose adept then I'm not going to be able to teach you,"

"Well I could get someone else to do it,"

"There's not a lot of people you can trust anymore, but I'll let you sleep on it for now," he said pushing the two piles of adept and elemental books away and picking up a book called 'Names' and passing it to Alex.

"What's this about?"

"See, everyone has three names…"

"You mean like our first names, middle names and surnames? 'Cause I have a friend who doesn't have a middle name,"

"No, nothing like that, now where was I… ah yes, everyone has three names; your given name, which is the only name you know about at the moment, your taken name, and your, true name," he said as he opened the book, turning to the first page. "Your given name is… well I'm not going to say it because China might hear me, but you know what it is… so we'll just move onto taken names, we all take a name to protect our given names…"

"So Skulduggery isn't your given name?"

"No, neither is 'Valkyrie' Valkyrie's or 'China' China's given name either,"

"Then what are your given names?"

"I don't even remember mine,"

"Mine is Stephanie," said Valkyrie.

"And why do we need to protect our given names?"

"You would know already if you hadn't chipped in," he muttered, "It's because someone can use your given name to gain a small amount of control over you, to make you sit, stand, speak, walk, that's why I wouldn't let you tell China what your name is,"

"Why would China want to control me?"

"She's done it to me before," said Valkyrie.

"Why?"

"That's also another long story,"

"And what are true names?"

"Your true name is the name you were born with, a name that gives you power, if someone found it what it is they could use it to gain absolute power over you, you would be their puppet, your free will would be completely eradicated,"

"So what is my true name?"

"I don't know, and neither do you, and as far as I know, no one does."

"And what if you find out what your true name is? How do you stop people from finding it out and control you?"

"You have to seal it, though it's a very risky procedure, Valkyrie had her true name sealed,"

"What did they have to do?"

Valkyrie face went pale, as if going over every painful memory, "They had to kill me, and then cut my heart out of my body,"

"Ouch… then how come your still alive?"

"They bring you back to life afterwards,"

"Yeah, I'm gonna stick with just not telling anyone if I find out my true name,"

"That's probably a good idea," said Skulduggery, "But moving on, you're going to have to take a name, so, any ideas?"

"None,"

"Well, you can sleep on that too,"

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><p><strong>The next chapter was originally part of this one, but it was getting too long so I had to cut in half.<strong>

**Please review! I begging you! I've only got two reviews so far, and I don't see the point in writing if no ones reading my work.**


	5. Chapter 5

"So going back to adept or elemental, what does China do?" Alex had had the question on her mind for a while now.

"She's adept, symbol magic,"

"And what exactly is that?"

"Oh, she has symbols tattooed all over her body, and by tapping certain combinations of them you get different types of things they do, though they are all rather violent…"

"That sounds somewhat appealing,"

"You have to study incredibly hard for many years to be able to do that,"

"I'll think about it… and what do necromancers do?"

"Death magic, or shadow magic, it's more of a religion, they're all a bit like monks and they only leave the temple after twenty years,"

"But Valkyrie isn't twenty yet?"

"But Valkyrie's special, she has a gift, she didn't even have to do the religion part of it,"

"And what do 'the children of the spider' do?"

"Oh, transform into disgusting giant spider people, and they can make an army of rat-sized spiders crawl out their sleeves, they're horrible nasty people," said Valkyrie.

"That's… disgusting,"

"I tell me about it, they're disgusting people too, it's like they have no soul, no feeling for the wrong they are doing,"

"Valkyrie!" said Skulduggery angrily, "You can't judge them all as bad people because the Torment did one horrible thing to you!"

"What did he do?" asked Alex.

"He ordered Skulduggery to shoot me!"

"And did Skulduggery actually do it?"

"No, Skulduggery fooled him into thinking my reflection was me and shot it instead,"

"Reflection?"

"My reflection climbs out of my mirror and goes to school for me while I'm working, but when I went over its memories I had to relive being killed!"

"That… is… so… awesome! Though ouch, and since when did you have a job?"

"Oh, we forgot to tell you… Skulduggery is the sanctuary detective and I'm his partner, though he gets all the fame and glory for every single thing I do!"

"Well it's not like you've actually done a lot," said Skulduggery.

"I helped save the world five times! And one of those times I didn't just help, I actually saved it!"

"Aghem," said China, "this is a library, keep the noise down or I'll have to kick you out,"

"Sorry," they said in unison, "But she started it!" said Skulduggery.

"Well I side with her anyway, and it doesn't matter who started it,"

"Fine, we'll be quiet," said Skulduggery.

"Good," China aid as she walked off.

The lesson continued for a while longer until Skulduggery remembered the time;

Skulduggery looked down at his watch, " Wow, one o' clock already, sorry A… I mean given name, we have to go now, oh and, see all these books" he pointed to the two piles on the table, "I want you to take them home and study them,"

"_All _of them?"

"Yes, all of them, and for heavens sake bring them back on time or China will make sure that bad things will happen,"

"Oh, and I would advise not letting your parents find them," said Valkyrie.

"Right, don't let parents find them and bring them back on time,"

"You can take the bus home right?" asked Skulduggery.

"Yeah, I brought money just in case,"

"Bye 'given name'! said Valkyrie.

"Bye Valkyrie! Skulduggery!" Alex called after them.

Alex watched them walk off, and around a couple of bookshelves until she couldn't see them any more.  
>She grabbed a pile of books in each arm and went up to China, <em>"God, these are heavy,"<em> she thought.

"China, can I take these out?" said Alex.

"All of them?" China asked disbelievingly.

"That's what I said to Skulduggery,"

"OK, I'll let you take all of them, as long as promise not to break your arms carrying them,"

"No promises,"

"Fine, but you're going to need something to carry them in," she said handing Alex a large plastic bag, "I don't need it, take it,"

"Thanks," she said handing over the books, China stamped them and she placed them inside the bag.

"So are you going to choose a taken name soon, because I really need to have something to call you by?"

"I'll think of something eventually…" she said walking off with the bag. China rearranged the shelves so that Alex had a clear path to the exit.

She walked out into the corridor, down the stairs, out the building, and across the road to where she could see a bus stop. She sat down and the bus arrived half an hour later. She got on the bus and sat at a window seat. She liked window seats, you could see everywhere you're going from them.  
>The bus arrived on the road of her house some time later and she hopped off. Alex walked up the path and entered through the back door, running up to her room as fast and silent as she could, like one of those ninjas, and hiding the books in her closet.<p>

She walked back down the stairs again and into the living room. Her brother Duncan was there watching 'The Simpsons'.

"Hi Duncan,"

"Oh, hi Alex," he said, his eyes glued to the screen.

"Can I watch with you?"

"Sure," he said looking up at her this time.

She sat down next to him and they watched and laughed together for the next one and a half hours.  
>After a while they heard knocking on the door and Alex went to open it. It was her father, he was tall and had blonde hair like hers, he wore a yellow a T-shirt, blue jeans and brown leather shoes.<p>

"Hi dad!" Alex said hugging him.

"Hi Alex! Why are you hugging me to death?"

Alex actually wasn't sure, she had just felt like it, "I dunno,"

"Hi dad," Duncan said with less enthusiasm,.

"Alex are you on hugging spree today? 'Cause this isn't normal behaviour,"

"I just missed you, and I happen to like hugging people,"

"Oh well…"

"Dad, when's mum coming home?" Alex asked.

He looked at his watch, "About three and a half hours from now,"

"_Good, I have enough t__ime to study before she tidies my room,"_ she thought.

Alex ran upstairs up the hallway and into her room, locking the door behind her. She got the books out her closet and with great difficulty put them on her desk. She decided to go through the adept ones first. Alex sat down and opened a book called 'Beginners Guide To Shape Shifting'. She opened it up to the first page. It seemed like a lot of fun, good for spying and detective work too. It required a lot of concentration, but she always was good at concentrating so that wouldn't be a problem. She put the book on the side for later, while she looked at other books.

The next book was called 'Reading Minds', Alex didn't like the thought of it at all, because what would happen if the person who you're reading has a dirty mind, or the fact that it would be really noisy if you were in a room filled with people, even if none of them were talking.

The next book was 'Psychics', Alex didn't even bother opening the book. Psychics are such clichés.

The next book was 'Teleportation', she read a couple of pages but it said that it was a genetic thing and even if she could do it, which was very unlikely, she didn't want to steal Hair Boy's part.

Next book was 'Necromancy'; she found it dull, boring and just plain creepy. So she put it down.

Next was 'The Children Of The Spider', and it was just as gloomy as the last.

Next was 'Adept: General Branch', it was more of combat things, such as running up walls and ceilings, different stances, weaponry, that sought of thing. She was definitely going to look at that so she put on the side with the book 'Beginners Guide To Shape Shifting'.

The next book was the one she had been looking forward to the most; 'Symbol Magic for beginners', it sounded very nice, but there was a lot of studying involved. There were hundreds of strange symbols to learn though she still had her heart set on it. After several months or years, depending on how fast a learner the person is, one would have the symbols tattooed, or one may call it 'carved', onto their body. The tattoos are not visible on the flesh in, but only when in use.  
>She put it on the side with 'Adept: General Branch' and 'Beginners Guide To Shape Shifting' for later.<p>

Alex went onto the pile of elemental books, starting with 'Elemental Magic', and she really did like the thought of being able to control the elements, but she also really liked the thought of being a shape shifter or using symbol magic. But Skulduggery had told her to sleep on it so she could always think about it tomorrow.  
>She looked at the clock on her desk, there were twenty minutes until her mother arrived so she pack the books back into the plastic bag and shoved them into the highest part of her closet. Her mother wasn't exactly very tall, in fact she as a tad bit short so she probably wouldn't see it, though her father would be able to, he was tall, but he never came in her room anyway.<p>

Alex climbed down the staircase and went into the kitchen. She made herself some snacks and sat at the table.  
>Duncan came in as well after a few minutes and began making something for himself to eat.<p>

"So Alex, where'd you go today?" he was just trying to be friendly.

Alex said the first thing that came to her mind; "I went to Ronny's, we were having a lot of fun and I lost track of time. And did you really just stay at home all day?" she asked, making an attempt to change the subject.

"Well I walked Lulu and Dreamsmasher for you, they really needed to take a dump,"

"Thanks," She finished the last bite of food, and put the plate in the sink. _"I really hate lying to him," _she thought.

Their mother arrived a few minutes later with the week's groceries.

"Hi mom, Let me carry that for you," Duncan said as he took two packets.

"Thanks, hi Alex, did you have a nice day?"

"Yeah it was fine," Alex said nervously, "How was yours?"

"I broke a heel, but other than that it was OK," she said as she dumped a packet on the kitchen counter. Only then did Alex notice that her mother was walking a bit funny. "And I'm going to clean your room now, it stinks in there and I don't trust you with a vacuum cleaner,"

"Why?"

"Because you'll suck your homework up as an excuse for not doing it,"

"That time was a mistake!"

"But it still happened,"

"Mum, do you have to clean it today? I want to go to sleep now," the sun had already set and Alex was tired from so much studying.

"Fine, but then you have to let me do it tomorrow,"

"Kay, night mum!"

Alex ran up the stairs and into her room, forgetting to shower altogether. She changed into her pyjamas and got in bed, falling asleep a few minutes later.  
>She dreamt of elementals, shape shifters, symbol magic and combat styles, wondering if she would ever be to do any of them.<p>

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><p><strong>Major cliffhanger!<strong>

**Please review!**


	6. Chapter 6

**I told MissAriannaDark yesterday that I wouldn't be able to update in a really long time but my dad allowed me to type the chapter from his. Sorry for not updating in so long but scince I'm going to school in a language I don't understand I have to spend all my free time translating homework with dictionaries. And I have extra lessons on Sarurdays, so I've been _really_ busy lately.**

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><p>Alex awoke the next day, her mind made up. She would've liked to try out her chosen discipline, but there was something she had to do first, something unthinkable, something so dark that she'd never forgive them for it, something as cold as death itself. Something called school.<br>Though before she could carry out this dark deed, her cell-phone rang.

"_Hello,__who__'__s__speaking?__"_ asked Alex.

"_Valkyrie,"_

"_Hi Val, how'd you get my phone number?"_

"_I__'__m __a __detective,__that__'__s __what __I __do,__but __anyway, __can __you __meet __me __and __Fletcher __at __the __park?__"_

"_Uh… have you gone crazy or something? I have to go to school,"_

"_That __won__'__t __make __a __difference,__"_

"_I __don__'__t __understand?__"__  
><em>_"__OK, __do __you __by __any __chance __have __some __chalk?__"_

"_Yeah, __I__'__ve __got __a __box __on __my __desk,__"_

"_And do you have a full length mirror?"_

"_I__'__m__standing__right__in__front__of__one,__"_ she said as she looked at her reflection.

"_Good, __draw __an __eye __in __a __circle __with __a __wavy __line __through __it __on __the __mirror,__"_

"_Why?"_

"_Just do it, and I would advise you change into your school clothes first, and nothing with any thing written on them, they'll come out backwards,"_

"_Um__… __OK__… __but__you__'__ll__have__to__wait__a__bit__…"_ Alex lay the phone down on her desk and went up to her closet. She pulled out a pair of jean shorts and white T-shirt, it didn't have any writing on it though it did have a picture of an evil bunny with an axe. Alex quickly changed into it and drew the picture on the mirror with the chalk. She walked up to her desk and picked up the phone again _"__Now__what?__"_

"_Say the following words to it; surface speak, surface feel, surface think, surface real,"_

"_Alrighty __then__…" _ Alex slowly approached the mirror, hoping nothing creepy would happen. "Surface speak, surface feel, surface think, surface real," _"__What __do __I __do __next?__"_

"_Wipe __the __symbol __off, __then __touch __it; __and __be __prepared __for __something __a __little __out __of __the __ordinary.__"_

"_OK__…" _She reached her arm out and rubbed out the symbol with her sleeve, then touched the mirror, her reflection mimicking her. But when she took her hand of, her reflection did not. Alex watched in amazement as its eyes opened, like it was awaking from a trance, it blinked, dropping its arm by its side. Slowly it emerged from the mirror, stepping out into reality. "Oh… my… freaking… unicorns…" Alex said in absolute awe, she nearly dropped her phone. _"__V-Valkyrie, __wh-what__… __h-how__… __she__'__s __me.__"_

_"Not she, it's an it. And it isn't you you, it's a copy, a bit like a clone. I walks like you, and talks like you. It will carry out your normal life while you can't be there, it should be enough to fool your parents and anyone that comes into contact with it. When you are done using it it will go back into the mirror, and when you touch the mirror you will receive its memories."_

"_So, I can be in two places at once?"_

_"_Precisely, __but __it __can__'__t __be __in __other __peoples __company __for __too __long __or __they__'__ll __start __to __notice __something__'__s __wrong, __and __it __could __never __fool __a__mage,__"__

"_Can I have a moment alone with it,"_

"_Sure,"_

Alex stared at it, "Say something," she askedintently.

The reflection turned its gaze to her, "What would you like me to say?" It had no expression, no feeling. Its voice was empty.

Alex burst out laughing "You sound just like me!"

"I know."

"What's your name?"

"My name is Alex Waters."

"Not my name, your name,"

Valkyrie's voice came from the phone; _"__It__'__s __not __a __real __person, __it __has __no __thoughts __or __feelings __of __its __own; __they__'__re __just __imitations __of __yours. __It__'__s __just __your __reflection, __nothing more and nothing less.__"_

"_So are there any rules about using it?"_

"_Yes; it can't change out of the clothes you were wearing when you summoned it, so make sure you're not wearing a something with a logo or insignia. They'll come out backwards. And make sure you're not wearing a watch or ring - they'll appear on the opposite hand. And _never_, under _any_ circumstances do you let _anyone_ catch you with it."_

"_Got it,"_

"_Now can you meet me at the park?"_

"_Yeah, __sure. __Which __one?__"__  
><em>_"__The __one __just __to __the __left __of __your __house, __and __bring __the __books __with __your __chosen __discipline.__"_

"_Kay,__bye.__"_ Alex put the phone down.

Alex got on her tippy-toes and grabbed the packet of books out her closet. She pulled out not one, but _two_ books and put them in her bag. As she opened her door the reflection spoke, she instantly closed it.

"You cannot exit through the front door, your parents will catch site of you." It said, its emotionless voice was strange.

"Then what should I do?" Alex asked hastily, Valkyrie and Hair Boy weren't going to be happy if she was late.

"Go out the window, and make sure no one sees you."

"But the only thing out my window is a tree, one with lots of branches to break my neck on,"

"You got a black belt in martial arts, I doubt a tree would make a challenging opponent."

"You've got a point there… alright fine." She made sure her bag was securely tied to her waste, approached the window and began climbing out. "Remember to go to school for me!… and do my homework for me!" Alex shouted at the reflection as she made the big leap for the tree.

She glided through the air smoothly, grabbing onto the closest branch with her arms and wrapping her legs around it. She carefully got into a position where she was hanging down form the branch by just her hands, and dropped down onto the one beneath her. Alex did the same with all the other branches until her feet plopped down onto the ground.  
>Alex quickly ran down the road and turned a corner, then at the end of the next road she turned a corner, she could see the park at the end of this one. She sprinted down the street and reached the park. She spotted Valkyrie and Hair Boy sitting on a bench close by. She walked up to them quickly, sitting next to them.<p>

"You're late," said Valkyrie.

"It's not my fault if I had to go out the window so I wouldn't be seen. And then I had to climb down a tree," Alex said upset, she'd never liked trees.

"Did you remember to bring the book?"

"I brought two, actually…" Alex said as she pulled them out her bag.

"It doesn't matter, which ones are they?"

"Symbol magic and shape shifting. I had my heart set on symbol magic but I'm starting to think shape shifting is a better idea,"

"Why?" asked Fletcher.

"So I can transform into a bird and not have to climb a tree,"

"Good idea," said Valkyrie, "Fletcher, we can't practice out here with mortals watching, teleport us somewhere else."

Alex chipped in "Mortals?"

"That what mages call none magic people,"

"Isn't that saying that you're immortal?"

"In a way we are, we age much slower than mortals. For example; China is the same age as Skulduggery, and Skulduggery is over four hundred years old,"

"That is awesome,"

"I know. Anyway, Fletcher, take us to an open field in the middle of nowhere,"

"OK," he said "Alex, Valkyrie, link hands with me," they did as told, Alex closed her eyes. When she opened them they were honestly in a field, in the middle of nowhere.

"You really took that literally," Alex said.

"Well it's as good a place as anywhere else," said Fletcher.

"Enough chit-chat, let's get started. Alex, we'll start with shape shifting, "Valkyrie said as she took the book Alex. "OK, it says;_ focus your energy as hard as you can on an animal ot object. You will see a bright, almost blinding golden light with the thing you want to transform into in the centre._"

"Sounds easy enough," said Alex. She closed her eyes and focused as hard as she could on a lion. She could see the golden light with the lion in the centre, after a few minutes it began to grow painful, every moment got worse and worse, she fell to her knees, screaming. Alex fell unconscious.

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><p><strong>I know it was short, but I didn't have a lot of time!<br>Please review!**


	7. Chapter 7

**I'm really sorry that I haven't been able to update in a while, but you know the story, school, no freetime, all happiness in life iniolated...  
>Enjoy! And remember to review!<strong>

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><p>Alex awoke lying on a couch in someone's living room, her mouth and hands were feeling strange. The room was fancy and everything from the drapes, the carpet to the coffee table matched perfectly. She slowly sat up to see a girl with dark hair walked into room cautiously, as though afraid of something.<p>

"V-Valkyrie, is that you?" Alex's vision was still a bit blurry.

The girl nodded her head, "OK Alex, please, don't over react," Valkyrie seemed as though ready to run.

"About what?" she could see fine now.

"Well, thing is, you tried to turn into a lion, but you started off too big, and… and…" she seemed utterly terrified.

"And what?"

"You only transformed partially…"

"What do you mean?"

Valkyrie pointed towards something at Alex's rear.

She looked to were Valkyrie was pointing; "Oh… my… God… What the hell is that?"

"A… a… a tail. Just don't panic, we can fix it,"

"What have you done to me?"

"I didn't do anything, you did," she was pleading for her life now.

Alex looked ready to kill someone.

Valkyrie couldn't stop herself from saying more, "There are _other_ things…"

"Like what?" she disobeyed Valkyrie and started to panic.

"Look at your mouth and hands," Valkyrie said, pointing to a mirror on the wall.

Alex got approached the mirror to find strange shapes molded into her jaw area, along with similar ones on her fingers. She opened her mouth and saw huge canines, and when she pushed at the shapes on her fingers, retractable claws shot out. Alex stared in absolute horror at her appearance.  
>Alex fell to her knees and literally broke down and cried. "I have fangs! And claws!" she yelled as she banged her fist on the floor.<p>

Valkyrie stared at the poor girl,_ "__god __she __looks __hideous.__"_  
>She decided to take the risk of going near Alex, slowly walking towards the crying girl lying in a puddle of her own tears. She helped her up and guided her back to the cousch, sitting down next to her.<br>"Please don't cry, we'll get it fixed. Skulduggery is bound to know someone who can help,"

"Y-you will," she managed to say in between sobs.

"Of course we will, just please don't kill me,"

"W-Why would I do that?"

"You have giant teeth and claws, who knows what you'd do with them if you got mad,"

"You've got a point there,"

"I do," she handed Alex a tissue to blow her snot filled nose.

"Now for Gods sake call Skulduggery!"

"He's already coming,"

"Good," Alex started to calm down now that she knew help on its way. She blew her nose with tissue, making the most disgusting sound on earth. She gave it back to Valkyrie who instead of taking it, used the air to fling it all the way into a trash can on the other side of the room. "So where are we?" Alex asked as she scanned her surroundings more thoroughly.

"It's… was, my Uncle Gordon's mansion. When he died he left it to me in his will; I inherit it when I turn eighteen,"

"Then what are you doing here now?"

"I use it as a sort of safe house. When I have to do stuff that's magical while I'm at home but can't I come here instead, sometimes I even stay the night, a week, it depends. So in a way it's my second home."

"That sounds cool,"

"Well, as long as you look like that you're going to be staying here as well, so I think you should meet the other resident,"

"Who's that?"

Valkyrie smiled strangely, but somehow in a comforting way. "My uncle,"

"I thought you said he was dead?"

"He is…" Valkyrie grabbed Alex's hand and ran out the room, pulling her with her.

"Where are we going?" Alex shouted, struggling not to fall over her tail. They had reached the bottom of a staircase and Valkyrie was practically dragging her up.

"His study!" They reached the top of the stairs and Valkyrie pulled her into the room directly in front of them.

"Val, did you take crazy pills in your breakfast today?" She was pushed into a room that had a bookshelf on every wall, and to the left there was a whole trophy cabinet littered with awards for best author.

"No," she let go of Alex's arm and walked up to a bookcase, pushing the spine of a book with no label.

The bookcase shook and moved sideways to reveal a secret room. It was filled with a collection of strange and exotic items, such as precious books that were thousands of years old, strange sculptures, maps, scrolls, journals, and things Alex didn't even know what to call. In the centre of the room was the most beautiful of all, a sapphire blue crystal with a strange light pouring out of it. Alex's eyes followed the light to see a middle aged, tubby-ish, balding man.

"Aaaahhhhhh!" the man screamed like a little girl.

"Oh well that's reassuring…" muttered Alex.

"Alex, meet my, absolutely terrified of lions, not quite Uncle Gordon!"

It was her turn to be scared now "He's a ghost!" she screamed, hiding behind Valkyrie.

"No Alex, he's not a ghost, he's an echo stone, and Gordon, there is no reason to be afraid of her, she's not a lion,"

They both had changed their expressions to that of confusion, "Then what are they?" they said in unison.

"Alex, quite often, when someone is dying they imprint their personality into an echo stone so that their loved ones will not miss them, but in this case my uncle did it so that the imprint would give him ideas for his books. This is the result. And Gordon, Alex was simply practicing shape shifting for the first time when it all went horribly wrong,"

"Oh, now I see…" they both said in unison again.

"Well it's a pleasure to meet you Alex… may I ask your surname?" Gordon said, he'd calmed down now. Alex stepped out from behind Valkyrie.

"Waters, nice to meet you too," she said casually as though nothing had happened.

"So, how exactly did you come to looking like _that_?"

"Exactly how Valkyrie said, I was practicing when it went horribly wrong. How'd you come to being like that?"

"Well, you see, I… or was it the real me… no it was me…"

"Forgive him," Valkyrie whispered "He's been having a bit of an identity crisis lately,"

"I see why,"

"…No it was definitely me… but it couldn't have been… but at the time it could have…"  
>"Gordon, we'll leave it at it was the real you for now,"<p>

"I guess so, for now. Anyway, the _real_ me was a famous author, who had a secret to his wonderful talent, which is the great and highly intellectual me." As he said this his belly popped out of his shirt.

"I'm going to pretend I didn't just see the horror that is your massive girth," Alex said disgusted.

"Me too," said Valkyrie, as grossed out as Alex.

"Could you wait a moment, I have to fix this," he said turning around and he buttoned up his shirt.

"Gordon, how could that have happened if you are technically a hologram?" Valkyrie asked a bit confused.

"He's a hologram?" asked Alex.

"Technically,"

Gordon pondered over the matter for a few minutes, eventually coming up with an answer; "There is only one explanation, I have become my own person!" he said joyfully. "This means I can finally invade the moon and make hundreds of clones of me, Skulduggery and Renn, then call it Egomania!"

Valkyrie whispered to Alex again, "Let him dream," Before Alex could add a sarcastic remark, the doorbell rang. "Gordon, Alex and I have to go now,"

"Yeah, what she said," Alex honestly just wanted to get away from the ego maniac in front of her, "See ya'! Wouldn't wanna be ya'!" she grabbed Valkyrie's hand and pulled her out the room with her, making sure she closed the 'bookcase' behind her.

"Why'd you do that?" asked Valkyrie.

"He's an egocentric old fart who wants to take over the moon with clones, in other words; he's annoying."

"I see your point," they reached the bottom of the stairs and opened the door. Skulduggery was standing there waiting. He walked in without invitation and closed the door behind him.

His empty eye sockets stared at Alex, tail, fangs claws and all. "I see what you meant,"

Skulduggery kept on looking her up and down, though Valkyrie spoke before he could say anything nasty about Alex's appearance, "Have you found anyone that can help?"

"Yes, actually," he replied

"Oh thank God!" Alex said. She felt like hugging him, but that would have been awkward so she didn't.

"And even better news, he's agreed to teach Alex shape shifting."

"Yaysies!" screamed Alex. She was jumping up and down like a five year old, her tail moving with her.

"Stop it," he said sternly, quite frankly it was creeping him out.

Alex whimpered, then started growling at him.

"OK, nice kitty, no need to start tearing people to shreds,"

"Fine, you get to live… for now,"

"Valkyrie, I don't like it when she looks at me like that."

"Deal with it," Alex said roughly.

He decided to ignore her scariness and get back to business. "And he gave me this," Skulduggery took a glass vile from out his coat pocket and showed it to Alex. It was filled to the brim with a strange liquid that kept changing colours. "Take it before you go to bed, the lion parts should be gone when you wake up,"

"Do I really have to wait that long?"

"Yes, it'll probably kill your stomach if you take it any sooner."

"Aaaww," She didn't want to wait until the next day to look normal. "By the way, what time is it?"

Skulduggery checked his watch; "Five o' clock,"

"That just lovely, four hours with nothing to do but look monstrous…"

Skulduggery quickly made up an excuse not to be stuck entertaining them. "Well I'll be going now, I have, um… work, to do…. Oh, I almost forgot, you start lessons tomorrow, be ready at nine AM sharp." He left without another word, slamming the door behind them.

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><p><strong>Yeah it was short, but well *enter sob story*. And yes, another unfortuanate cliffhanger.<br>You know what's really weird, Uncle Gordon is like an exact replica of my dad! (But with less hair, of course)  
>P-p-p-pleeeeaase review!<strong>


	8. Chapter 8

**OK, I just want to get some things straight with you guys; the reason my younger characters tend to say 'wanna', 'gonna' and 'cause' is because it's just the way that they talk. It's not because I don't know how to spell. This message is partically for the people like Mademise Morte who require _everything_ to be perfect. **

**WARNING: The following chapter contains violence, blood and guts and all sorts of gore.**

**Enjoy! And remember to review!**

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><p>Alex and Valkyrie had decided to spend the rest of the day watching documentaries on lion behavior. It was very interesting, the film makers had been following around a large pride of them. Getting to know each and every ones personalities, they even gave them names. Though it was quite gruesome when it came to meal times.<br>Watching this spectacular program was all going fine until…

"Valkyrie," Alex said, turning her head to her. "I'm hungry,"

'_I __never __thought __of __that,__" _Valkyrie thought to herself. "W-what do you feel like eating?" she sure didn't want to land up being dinner.

"Nothing you have here. Maybe we could go to Africa? It's the perfect place to get a meal,"

"Um, OK, I'll call Fletcher," Valkyrie quickly walked out the room to a spot where Alex couldn't hear the conversation. She grabbed her cell phone out her trouser pocket and dialed Fletchers number. _"__Why __the __hell __did __you __ditch __me?__"_ she yelled quietly.

"'_Cause __she __is __hideous! __I __didn__'__t __wanna __have __to __look __at __that __face __for __the __rest __of __the __day!__"_ he whispered/yelled.

"_Cut the crap, she's hungry and I need you to get us to Africa ASAP,"_

"_Fine, __I__'__ll __be __there __in __a __sec.__"_ The phone went off and Valkyrie almost thought Fletcher was abandoning her. Fortunately, he popped up next to her about a minute later. His hair was freshly gelled and looked spikier than usual.

"OMG!" Valkyrie yelled at him. "You took the risk of her eating me so you could gel-up your hair!"

"Look, if I'm gonna die, I wanna at least die looking good,"

"Whatever," Valkyrie went back into the living room, Fletcher following.

"Everyone link hands!" he shouted. Alex took Fletcher's hand and in the other hand took Valkyrie's. Making the mistake of leaving her claws out. "OOOWCH!" Fletcher screamed, snapping his hand back from hers. 'That hurt!" he clutched his hand close to his chest, it was bleeding. Seeing the damage Alex had caused to Fletcher, Valkyrie quickly took hers away as well.

"Sorry," Alex said apologetically. Her voice sounded gruff, as if the word had been said by a middle aged man with a dry throat.

Valkyrie quickly got a band-aid out one of the near by drawers and wrapped it around Fletcher's hand. When they linked hands the next time they made sure that they just held Alex by the arm. They were teleported to a vast plain in front of a herd of zebras. It was about eleven AM there and in the in a pathetic excuse for a winter. Back in Ireland it was six PM and in the middle of summer. Not that they had much of a summer, is fact, this winter was hotter than most of their summers. Alex, Valkyrie and Fletcher would have actually been fooled that this was summer if they hadn't known any better.

Lion-Alex got down on all fours, taking in her surroundings from a different perspective. Smelling the strong stench of the savanna, and the delicious scent of fresh meat.  
>Using the tall grass to her advantage, she crept up to the herd, carefully picking out the weakest member. A young filly that was grazing intently at a rich patch of grass. Sneaking up at it from behind, always the best angle for an ambush, she made sure none of the other zebras were watching it. She slowly crept closer, waiting for the perfect moment, then pounced. She ripped her claws at one of its legs, braking the bone as an attempt to disable it. It struggled, and managed to get away, but after suffering an injury on it was slow and got tired quickly. Alex chased the filly, it was weak and gave up, dropping to the ground. Alex ripped a huge gash in the youngster's throat with her over sized teeth, snapping its jugular in half. This killed it almost instantly.<br>The rest of the herd fled, it didn't matter to Alex, she had what she wanted already. She began devouring it, enjoying the wonderful flavour.

Valkyrie and Fletcher watched in horror, Fletcher puking all over his sneakers. Valkyrie was too preoccupied with staring to be bothered with remembering to puke.

Once Lion-Alex finished satisfying her hunger, she looked at the zebra carcass. _"__What__have__I__done!__" _The human part of her screamed. She'd just let her lion side take over, it was pure instinct, she'd had no idea that she was capable of such brutality. Alex looked down at herself; her clothes were soaked in blood, even her face and hair were covered in it. _"__It__'__s__just__nature,__"_ she thought. _"__It__had__to__happen,__I__wasn__'__t__capable__of__stopping__myself__anyway.__"__  
><em>Looking incredibly solemn, she walked back to Valkyrie and Fletcher.

"C-can we go back now?" she struggled to hold back tears of regret.

"Yeah, s-sure, Fletcher, take us back to Gordon's." Valkyrie said, her voice clearly showed she was horrified. Fletcher turned his head towards the two girls, he was currently kneeling down on the ground, having already vomited as much as it is possible for one to vomit. And that's a lot of vomit.

"Kay," Fletcher wiped the brown sludge of his face and onto his sleeve. He reluctantly took Alex's bloody hand/paw in his hand, and in the other, unfortunately the one with vomit on the sleeve, took Valkyrie's. They appeared back in the living room of Gordon's mansion.

Valkyrie showed Alex to her room, and into the shower, leaving some fresh clothes on the bed for when Alex was finished. She stripped of her clothes and got in, getting the water to just the temperature she liked it. The hot water was so refreshing, washing off all the gross blood and intestines, and well, what not? When she was done she wrapped a towel around herself and went into her room. It was big and spacious with a teal blue queen-sized bed, there was a glass door leading to a veranda with a beautiful view of the city, and even a large walking closet. Alex changed into the clothes; a lovely matching set of purple pyjamas and flip-flops. She went down stairs to find Valkyrie and Fletcher sitting on the couch, making out.

"Uh, guys, I'm right here, and Valkyrie, you do realize that Fletcher's mouth is filled with vomit, right?"

The couple immediately broke apart. "Pphhweah!" she spat out about twenty mouth fills of spit. "If you ever tell anyone about that I will hunt you down and tear you limb from limb," Valkyrie said sternly.

"Your secret's save with me," Alex was trying to sound cheerful, but honestly, she was pissed, she'd been turned into a semi-lion, been insulted by Skulduggery and Fletcher, yes, she'd overheard their conversation, murdered a poor defenseless animal and gotten covered in its blood and guts, all in one day.

"Good," She ran away, turning into the bathroom to brush her teeth.

"You know, Hair Boy, you should brush your teeth too. The stomach acids in the vomit's gonna rot them,"

"Aaahgh! My stunning appearance will be ruined!" he shrieked, running away to find a different bathroom. Alex was left by herself, she sat silently in waiting. Valkyrie soon returned after brushing her teeth what smelled like more than she could count.

Alex was bored and felt like watching TV. "Is The Simpson's showing yet?"

"Yeah, it started five minutes ago," said Valkyrie.

"Yay!" Alex practically worships The Simpson's. Fletcher soon joined them, sitting close to his girlfriend.

Alex forced them to all sit down and watch it, and they pretty much spent the next one or two hours laughing. It was about ten o' clock when they all decided to go to bed, Alex had an important lesson the next morning and had to be ready first thing in the morning.

"Alex remember to take that vile Skulduggery gave you, I put on your bedside table," Valkyrie told Alex just before she went to her room.

"Kay, night,"

"Good night, don't let the bed bugs bite, no seriously, there_are_ bed bugs,"

"You know, you've got such a wonderful way of breaking the news to people," Alex said sarcastically.

"Why thank you!" Valkyrie said cheerfully as she walked off.

Alex went into her room and up to her bedside table picking up the vile filled with the colourful liquid. _"__Here __goes __nothing,__"_ she thought. She picked it up and swallowed it quickly, and… it… was… disgusting.

"Eeeeww!" Alex shrieked. "Oh my god! What the hell was in that thing!"

Valkyrie shouted something across the hallway, "Colourful liquid!"

Alex washed her mouth out with about twenty cups of water, brushed her teeth and then went to bed, she stayed up for a while, trying to find a comfortable position, which was impossible because of the tail. Eventually she fell asleep, and dreamt of absolutely boring _nothing_.

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><p><strong>I am ashamed of myself, these chapters keep getting shorter and shorter! My grand apologies! I will try to make the next one <em>way<em> bigger.  
>I did put a warning for gore, but I'll forgive you if you didn't bother to read it and were completely unprepared for the disgusting slaughter.<strong>

**Please review! I want at least one review or I won't make the next chapter. I got zero reviews for the last chapter and am frankly, quite pissed. There is no point in me writing if no one's reading.  
>R-E-V-I-E-W!<strong>


	9. Chapter 9

**Happy Haloween! Yeah I put this chapter up on Haloween but then forgot to say 'Happy Haloween' so I've gone back the next day and written it. (Also that will also put story at the top of list which will grab the attention of the people that overlooked it the day before, which might result in me getting more reviews.)  
>Strangely I didn't go trick-or-treating this year, I normally do but my brother's getting way too old to go with me so it's sarting to get embarrising. (Yes, I still go trick-ot-treating.)<strong>

**For anyone that's getting confused about my last paragraph when I said that my brother was getting too old to come with me; he isn't actually eleven, he's two years older than me. I just made him eleven in the story to spite him. (We have a bit of a love/hate relasionship.)**

**I'm _really_ sorry for updating a day later then I usually do. Amazingly it wasn't because I was extra busy, it was the fact that I wrote you a mega sized chapter that's about three times the size of the normal ones. (Yaysies! This is gonna keep you reading for a _long_ time!)**

**Remember to review!**

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><p>Alex awoke the next day well rested. She looked down at herself and saw something amazing; her tail was gone and so were her claws. She ran into the bathroom and checked her mouth; the fangs were gone too.<p>

"Valkyrie! Valkyrie! They're gone!" Alex ran around the mansion searching for the dark haired girl. She found her in the kitchen eating breakfast. "Valkyrie! I'm back to normal again!"

"That's…" pause. "… wonderful" Valkyrie honestly didn't care, as long as she wasn't going to get eaten.

"I know! And guess what! I don't feel like eating gross bloody meat anymore! I feel like eating coco-pops!"

"There's a box is in the pantry." She pointed at a door across the room that had a plaque saying 'PANTRY'. Her voice remained calm, as though completely uninterested.

"To the pantry!" Alex ran to the door and opened it, quickly spotting the box and grabbed it. She came out and found the cupboard containing the cereal bowls and spoons, then got the milk out of, obviously, the fridge. She sat down and poured the cereal and milk into the bowl, eating it like a pig.

"Alex, how can you still be hungry after yesterday? That was enough food for at least a month,"

"That's like asking 'why did the chicken cross the road?'"

"Why?"

"Because he was a double agent deflecting to the KGB."

Valkyrie burst out laughing, falling off her chair and rolling around on the floor like a lunatic, in other words; Fletcher style.

"And I still remain the funniest teenager on the planet," Alex said, admiring her incredible talent of making people crack up with barely effort on her own behalf. "Valkyrie, you can get of the floor now."

'But I don't wanna get off the floor," she said, still giggling away.

"Get off the floor." Alex commanded.

She got up, trying to look as respectably as possible, which wasn't really working for her. "You're no fun,"

"Yes I am, now I have to go get ready, Skulduggery will be here in ten minutes." Alex put her bowl in the sink and was leaving the room to go back upstairs when…

"Can I come too?" Valkyrie asked eagerly.

"It's my lesson," Alex turned around to face her.

"Well, I could just come in the car, meet the guy and then go,"

"Why would you want to do that?"

"'Cause I'm bored and have nothing to do, why else?"

"Fine, get ready." Alex left the room with Valkyrie following behind. They went upstairs, both going into their own rooms.

"Valkyrie," Alex called from across the hallway. "I've got nothing to wear,"

"Come look in my room, we'll find you something." Alex walked out her room and into Valkyrie's, who was sitting on her bed, already finished getting dressed. "You can choose whatever you want,"

Alex went up to the closet, taking out a pair of jeans, a black top and a red leather jacket. "Thanks." She went back to her room and changed. They fitted well, nice and comfy. Alex went into her bathroom and grabbed a comb, her was a mess. She combed through the massive tangle of waves, eventually managing to get it into a more respectable form. Then brushed her teeth and went down stairs. Valkyrie was already sitting on the couch in wait of her arrival.

"He should've been here half an hour ago," Valkyrie said impatiently. Almost instantly after saying the words the doorbell rang. Valkyrie got of the couch and opened the door. Skulduggery stood there in a black suit, the usual fedora hat and his façade on.

He looked down at his watch. "Hurry, we're late."

"That's your fault, not ours," said Alex. They left the house, making sure the door was locked and got in the Bentley, completely forgetting to put their seatbelts on. Skulduggery started the engine and they sped off, driving at a dangerously fast speed towards the direction of the countryside.

After a while of pondering, Valkyrie switched to interrogation mode. "Skulduggery, why were you so late anyway?" He was never late unless there was business to attend to.

"Sanctuary called, they want to meet Alex,"

Alex turned pale, Skulduggery had told her that when you join the magic world you're immediately put at the top of every bad guys hit list. "OK, who are 'the sanctuary' and how do they know who I am?" she was deeply concerned for her safety.

"The sanctuary is like the magical government, they set the rules, we follow. I work for what you could call their 'F.B.I.' as the leading detective."

"What about my other question, how do they know who I am?"

"Word tends to get around," the Bentley turned a corner and jolted.

"China." Valkyrie muttered angrily.

"I have my suspicions too Valkyrie, but that doesn't mean we can start making random assumptions and blaming people we have no evidence whatsoever against,"

"Well who knows who could have heard about this information along the way?" Alex said as her face got slammed up to the window when Skulduggery turned another corner.

"Slow down!" Valkyrie shouted. "The cops could arrest you!"

He slowed down a bit and turned back to Alex. "Sorry, what were you saying?" The Bentley swerved onto the other lane and nearly hit and oncoming truck, missing it by inches.

"Keep your eyes sockets on the road you moron!" Valkyrie screamed.

"That's no way to talk to your elder's young lady," Skulduggery said turning back.

"You're not an elder, you declined the position when they offered it to you, remember?"

"It didn't mean that way. Alex, excuse her, she has no manners, where were we?"

Alex was getting fed up now. "I was asking; what could happen if this information got into the wrong hands?"

"Who knows? It doesn't matter for now, the sanctuary meeting you is a good thing,"

"If you don't recall, there are untrustworthy people in the sanctuary," Valkyrie said, his ignorance was pissing her off.

"The children of the spider won't be a problem, well, at least I don't think so…"

"It's not just them, if there were traitors before then there's probably still traitors now,"

The fact that she was right and he was wrong was annoying him. "Do you ever give up?"

"You're the one that taught me not to,"

"That's enough, you're not aloud to talk 'til we get there," He wasn't going to lose his dignity just yet.

Valkyrie glared at him, shooting daggers, but shut herself up anyway.

"I'm still worried," Alex said. They drove the rest of the way in silence, OK, almost silence, there was a bit of shouting and screaming caused by Skulduggery's reckless driving. They arrived outside a Victorian styled manor; it was big, but not as big as Gordon's.

Alex's immediately reaction was… "_This_is the place I have to do lessons at? I have to go _here_?" she asked in disbelief.

Skulduggery was surprised, he thought it was lovely. "Yes, what's wrong with it?"

"The… It's so… old fashioned,"

"I still don't see the problem?"

"Well, if this is the guy's house, I can only imagine what he'll be like."

"I still don't get your point,"

She figured this was too much from Skulduggery's own time era for him to notice anything. "Never mind." They got out the car and walked up to the door, Alex was expecting to see a door bell but instead there was a knocker with a lion head on it. This brought back disturbing memories from the previous day. Skulduggery banged on it and it was swiftly opened by a man. _"__Oh__… __my__… __God__…"_ was all Alex could think as she took in the man's appearance. He was completely Victorian styled, he wore a finely tailored coat with tails and everything, a top hat, and held a cane and had a thin mustache the same dark chocolate brown colour as his perfectly combed hair.

He had the same expression looking upon Alex but was slightly better at hiding it. "Good morning Mr. Pleasant, you're late." He had a strong English accent that stood out from their Irish ones.

"My apologies, I was called in by the sanctuary just as I was leaving." Skulduggery was sounding just as old fashioned as the man.

"Apology accepted." He turned his gaze to Alex, looking unimpressed. "Why is she dressed that way and what _is_ that pink thing in her hair?

"It's called modern fashion," Alex said cheekily. "Clearly you've never heard of it."

"I am going to take that as a complement. May I ask of the young ladies names?" he said to Skulduggery.

"Alex Waters…" he pointed to Alex, then to Valkyrie. "… and Valkyrie Cain,"

"And which one is it that I will be tutoring?"

"Miss Waters,"

Valkyrie chipped in. "She isn't that bad once you get to know her,"

"Why do I find that hard to believe?" the man muttered. "My name is Witherman Grail, it is a pleasure to meet you."

"Strange name you got there," said Alex.

"When you take a name it will probably sound worse."

"How'd you know I hadn't taken a name?"

"Is it not obvious?"

"I find that offensive,"

"It was supposed to be. Now, enough chit-chat, I need to get on with this lesson and you surely have somewhere to be, am I right?"

"Yes actually, we'll be on our way." With that Skulduggery gave a curt nod, turned on his heel and started of towards the Bentley with Valkyrie following.

Witherman Grail closed the door and put his hat on a hat-stand, then led Alex into a large study. It was dark and there were no electric lights, only a single glass chandelier lit by many candles. The golden yellow light shone through the glass, casting beautiful shimmering patterns all across the room.

"Nice place," Alex said, examining the room. Some of the unreachable corners were a bit dusty but the rest of the study was neat and well kept.

"It is indeed, now could you please stop talking like that?"

"Like what?"

"In such a modern manner,"

There's nothing wrong with the way I talk,"

"You can talk like that anywhere else but not under my roof, it is disrespectful."

"Whatever,"  
>"I wouldn't do that if I were you, bad things could happen,"<p>

"Yeah right,"

He moved his eyes down to a floor board and then up to Alex. The nails holding it down to the ground came out and the plank of wood came up and hit Alex in the face. "Oowch!" she shrieked, clutched her throbbing nose, it was stinging badly. "That hurt!"

"I told you not to."

"How did you do that?"

"I have my ways. Take a seat." He pointed to a chair he'd placed next to his.

Alex sat down in the chair, waiting for Grail to say something.

"Miss Waters, before we start I'd like to ask a few questions. Mr. Pleasant said you managed to partially turn into a lion, which is why I gave you that vile."

"Yes,"

"How much were you able to turn into?"

"Just the tail, claws, fangs and wanting to eat grotesque bloody meat."

He put a monocle on his left eye and jotted something down in his notebook. "And how many times did you try to achieve this?"

"I did it on my first,"

He wrote something else in his notebook, then turned back to her. "That's incredible; most of my students can barely turn into a butterfly after days of trying. I must say, you do seem to have a talent for this discipline."

"Thanks,"

"My pleasure." He pulled a huge book out from one of the desks many drawers and tapped it. "We will start with this." He turned to a page numbered as 'XII'. Alex assumed that it meant twelve but she'd never been good with roman numerals so she wasn't sure. "Read." Grail said, pointing to the first paragraph.

"Do I have to?"

"Yes, now hurry up, I don't have all day."

"Fine. _Shape__shifting__is__a__complex__art__mastered__by__only__the__best__of__sorcerers.__It__evolves__a__great__amount__concentration__from__the__human__mind._ And how is this supposed to help me?"

"You will see, carry on."

"_It__is__very__important__that__one__studies__the__human__and__animal__anatomy__before__trying__to__turn__into__anything._ What? I have to do _art_ class before I can start to learn? You're not serious!"

With that Grail moved his eyes to the huge book and then to Alex and it hit her on the head. "I am. Behave."

Alex muttered something angrily under her breath.

He got another huge big book from a different drawer with the label 'Anatomy Of The Human Body'. "Open it to page nineteen, human head."

Alex did as told, figuring that if she was good she wouldn't get hit with various objects. Once again the pages were numbered in roman numerals. "Um, which one is page nineteen?"

"Page 'IXX', can you not read roman numerals?"

Alex found the right one, it had many drawings of a head from all different angles. "They don't teach them to us at school anymore,"

"What is the world coming to," he mumbled to himself. He got out a drawing pad, a box filled with many different shades of pencils and two rubbers. "Read, when you're finished the page start copying the drawings."

"_You__'__ve __got __to __be __kidding __me,__" _she thought, but still did it anyway.

Grail got up from his chair. "While you do this I'm going to make myself some tea." He left the room, leaving Alex to carry on with the work he'd given her.

Alex carried on reading about proportions and blah blaah blaaah. And she carried on reading, and reading, and pretty much just reading. When she had finally finished the last sentence of the page she began to draw, somewhat enjoying it. _"__Surprisingly,__this__is__kinda__fun,__" _she thought. Alex had loved drawing as a child, still did actually. It was pretty easy, she'd always been the best in art class. It brought back annoying but happy memories from when she was younger. She'd been in class and having already finished her work before anyone she had nothing to do. So Alex had gotten out a drawing pad and a pencil and started copying the girl that sat next to her. It came out looking practically identical and then when she showed it to the girl the following happened:

"_Aaah! Alex! That's soooo pretty!" Poppy squealed. She grabbed the picture and waved it around in the air for her best friend Kaiya to see._

"_Oh my gosh! Alex! That's beeauutifuul," Kaiya then grabbed it and showed it to her friend Ukhona._

"_Ooooooh! Gimee gimee gimeee!" Ukhona snatches the page and runs to her friend Chloe._

"_Aaaaaaaah! How did you dooo that?" Chloe says idiotically._

_Alex rolled her eyes at the annoying girls. They. Were. Pathetic. She decided that in order for them to understand the incredibly simple movement of a pencil, she had to talk slowly, as though to retards. "See, you pick up a pencil, any kind of pencil," she picked up her pencil and showed it to them. "then you put it down on your piece of paper," she got out a new piece of paper and put the tip of her pencil on it. "and then move it around and it makes marks on the page." Alex said as slowly as possible. "Duh."_

"_That is soooooo coool." The group of girls say in unison._

_Alex rolled her eyes at them, clearly seeing that they were unintelligent fashion obsessed drama-queens that could never learn anything other than the latest trends._

"_Good __times,__"_ Alex thought. _"__Good __times.__"_  
>She was about halfway through the picture when Grail came back into the room. He was carrying another book in his arms though Alex couldn't see the title.<p>

"Are you done yet?" he asked.

"Almost, I just have to finish the ears. They're a bit difficult." She'd been struggling on them for a while.

"I know what you mean, with all the little nooks and crannies. But I guess that is what makes them such an engineering masterpiece."

"I never thought of it that way before, but whatever you say goes, right?"

"Exactly." Grail sat down in the chair next to her and examined her work.

"So why do I have to do this?"

"When one turns into something they must be able to turn into it properly."

"I suppose, but then why do I have to do human anatomy?"

"Because most animals are very similar to humans so we are the best starting points."

"I guess so. I've been wondering, can shape shifters turn into people?"

"At a certain lesson, yes,"

"So when will I be able to do that?"

"Well, seeing as you have been so successful I doubt it would be too long, maybe four months."

"That's a long time,"

"Four moths is nothing, two hundred years is a long time."

"Not for me." She put the finishing touches on the drawing and then showed it to Grail.

"Impressive, you've got a lot of potential."

"Thanks. Do I have to do anymore drawings? I came here to learn how to shape shift, not how to be the next Leonardo De Vinci,"

"No, we're not. Come with me." He got up from his chair and waited for Alex to join him.

She got up and followed him through the manor. "Where are we going?"

"You will see." He exited out the back door and went into the garden. It was gigantic and had it's own vegetable and fruit garden in the front and at the back there was a strange type of building that Alex could hear a beautiful sound coming from.

"What's in there?"

"It's an aviary." They stepped in through the door of the building. Alex was overwhelmed, it was filled with birds of all kinds all chirping away to their hearts content.

"They're… beautiful…"

"I think so too, they're also lovely for beginners to turn into. Why don't you give it a try,"

"Um, are you sure, I don't want to turn into a mutant animal/human again,"

"Go ahead, it won't happen again, trust me."

"Uh, OK, I guess. Which one should I turn into?"

"Whichever of your choosing."

Alex approached an adorable sparrow that was sitting in a corner by itself. She took a good look from a couple of different angles, then closed her eyes. She envisioned the little sparrow, seeing it in the middle of an intense golden, almost blinding light. Alex felt the energy searing through her veins, herself shrinking, transforming. It was the kind of feeling one gets when they've been on an up-side-down rollercoaster twenty times, or when one stands on their head for five hours. Dizzy, but enjoyable. A feeling of excitement, but fear. Alex opened her eyes, she felt weird and everything looked strange and big and round-ish. A never ending space filled with the sound of her brethren. She heard a noise, a loud noise coming from a giant man.

"Miss Waters, are you alright?" his voice sounded strange and deep.

"Gr-Grail, is that you?" her voice ridiculously squeaky.

"Of course, who else could I be?"

"I don't know, a giant bird killing monster?"

"What has gotten into you?" he said grinning to himself. Alex had thought that he was incapable of showing any sort of emotion, let alone humor. Grail picked her up and examined her carefully, seeing if she'd done everything right. "You've gotten a bit of the proportions messed up around the beak and claws. They're too sharp, as though for cutting something."

"It doesn't really matter, I did something and that's what counts,"

"Yes it is, and one other thing. You still have that reddish-pink thing on one of your feathers."

"Well, it can be like a trade mark of mine."

"If you want it, but it might not always be that good to have,"

"What do you mean?"

"For example, if you were ever sneaking up on someone, and they knew about you little 'trade mark' then they could spot you easily."

"You do have a point. So, can I fly now?"

"Yes, you're a bird, you have wings, you're supposed to fly."

"What if I fall?"

"You're a fully grown sparrow, I think it is safe to say that you can fly." With that, Grail pushed her up into the air.

Alex began flapping her wings but nothing was happening, she was falling at an alarming rate. "Aaaaaaaaaaaah!"

"Flap harder!"

She did as told and missed a messy end by inches. In fact she was rising now. "Grail! I can fly!"

"Try and fly across the room and back,"

She shot forwards through the air, the wind bursting into her face. Alex dodged a numerous amount of birds in her way by doing various types of cart wheels, summersaults and flying in spirals. "This is sooo cool," She reached the end of the almost never ending room and started going back to Grail. Once again there were many other birds in the way to dodge but she managed to reach him anyway. "How was I?" Alex asked him eagerly, the ride had been so thrilling, she felt like she wanted to do it over and over again.

"Excellent. Now try and memorize the image of the sparrow in your mind so that you can turn into it some other time without having to physically see the bird."

"How do I that?"

"You simply have to memorize the it, take another look at the sparrow, then it might be easier."

"OK dokey, this should be a piece of cake," Alex went up to the bird again take another good look from many different angles, especially the beak and claws. She memorized all of these angles one by one until she was sure she had it perfect, then went back to Grail. "Done, now what?"

"It is getting late, lesson is nearly over, you can leave now."

"But how do I change back?"

"Just picture yourself, you will turn back instantly."

"So can I go and show my friends what I was able to do?"

"Not the mortals, especially not the mortals. You may show Miss Cain, perhaps any other magic friends of yours."

"Well, I'll go now. Goodbye!" Alex shot off into the air and out through the open door. _"__Everything__looks__so__strange,__"_ she thought. When being so small the world looked so big, as though his back yard was the size of an entire neighborhood. She rose higher in the air so that she could see where the direction of the city was. _"__Hey__I__can__see__my__house__from__here!__It__'__s__a__bit__far__though,__"_ She flew to the direction of it, stopping every once in a while to eat fruit hanging off trees. She reached her house and went up to her bedroom window which was unsurprising closed. She stuck her face up to it and saw the reflection sitting doing her homework for her. Alex banged on the window a couple of times until the reflection noticed her.

The reflection got up from its seat and opened the window, thinking that she was just any ordinary bird asking for food. "Hello little bird, do you want some bread?" its voice had no emotion and it was incredibly eerie.

"No, it's me, the real Alex."

"Where have you been? Your parents are going to start noticing that there's something wrong with me, and I haven't been able to change clothes."

Alex flew into the room, the reflection following behind. "I by mistake turned into semi-lion and looked really gross and freaky and didn't know how to change back so I couldn't come home, and Skulduggery found someone with a cure who agreed to teach me and I went to lessons this morning,"

"That sounds interesting, but can you change back now?"

"Yes, I just have to picture myself and I'll be turned back instantly,"

"That's nice, your voice sounds squeaky,"

"It does, I can't help it, I'm a soft adorable birdie, I have to sound cute,"

"You do realize that you're talking to yourself, right?"

"No, I didn't, I should stop now. Carry on doing my homework for me. What day is it?"

"Tuesday." The reflection went back to the desk and carried on working.

Alex sat on her bed then pictured her normal self in the clothes that Valkyrie ha given her. She changed back to herself and went up into the reflection. "Go back into the mirror and come out again, you'll be in my clothes then,"

"OK." The reflection stepped into the mirror waiting for Alex to touch it to receive its memories.

Alex touched the mirrors surface and felt something surge into her. She was filled with the newly made experiences of the reflection. "_Whoa_," Alex stumbled back, it was so much to take in. Carefully, she arranged them in their order beside her own ones as not to get them mixed up with hers. It had all been normal, nothing strange about the reflection's two days by itself. They were bland and boring just like any other school days. Alex touched the mirror again and the reflection stepped out with Alex's clothes on. "That sorts out the clothes problem,"

"It does." It went back to work again and Alex sat on her bed, picturing the bird. The bright golden light shone in her mind with the little sparrow in the middle. She felt herself transform, the sheer thrill of it was amazing. She opened her eyes, everything looking big and weird and turned to the reflection. "I'm going now, try to look normal, don't act strangely." Alex hopped up onto her window sill and jumped off, flapping her wings.

She rose, higher and higher, seeing the whole city from her point. She didn't know where Valkyrie was so she decided to go show China. Alex scouted her surroundings for China's building, seeing it poking out a corner at the opposite side of the city._ "__This__is__gonna__be__a__long__flight,__" _She shot off at full speed in the direction of it. After around half an hour she reached it, flying through one of the library's open windows. Alex navigated her way through the labyrinth of bookshelves by simply flying over them to the centre of the room. China Sorrows sat at her desk doing whatever she always did there, Alex presumed it was just normal paperwork. She flew up and landed gently on the desk right in front of the beautiful woman's eyes.

"Hello little birdie," China said sweetly to it. "Do you want some food?"

"No,"

"Well, that was embarrassing… Speak of it to no one. Do I make myself clear, _no __one_."

"Yes Miss Sorrows,"

"Now who are you and what do you want?"

"You seriously don't recognize me? I thought you would with the whole 'reddish-pink feather thing' I've got going on there,"

"I usually _ever_ forget a face, but seeing as you've got someone else's that I must admit I have _never_, or at least I don't think so, seen before. You look like a sparrow, any normal sparrow that got a little paint on it. Now you haven't answered my question yet, who are you and what do you want?"

Alex knew she couldn't tell China her name. "I can't tell you my name, who knows what you could do with it, so let's just say I came here a couple of days ago with a certain skeleton and his partner,"

China searched her rather vast memory for the day Alex had been talking about. "Ah, the girl. I see you've found your way in shape shifting. Pity, I thought you'd be perfect for symbol magic."

"I'm gonna go and do that too, it's always good to have more than one trick up your sleeve,"

"Very true, but it becomes a little difficult to keep up with two disciplines, especially if they both require so much concentration."

"I don't think so, shape shifting is easy, the only catch is having to learn _anatomy_. I mean, _why_?"

"You cannot turn into something that looks deformed. Or something that looks like a cartoon character, that would just be silly."

"I suppose… By the way, China, I'd like to ask you a couple of questions," Alex closed her eyes and turned back to her normal self, getting off the desk and pulling up a chair.

She froze in her tracks, her face turning pale. "About what?"

"Skulduggery got called in by the sanctuary. They were asking if they could meet me. But he says that he never said a word to them about me. Spill."

"Why would you think that _I,_ of all people, would tell some random stranger that there's a new person in the magical society?"

"You're the only person that knows that knew that I even existed in the time span that this happened, other than your doorman, and he doesn't look like the talkative type. Valkyrie tells me you gossip a lot, swap information with people."

"And?"

"Who did you tell?"

"That matter does not concern you, stay out of it."

"Yes it does, my life is in danger. I want answers, _now_."

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><p><strong>Haha! <em>Another <em>cliffhanger! I'm probably torturing all of you right now! (I can just imagine your disapointed faces! They look soooo funny!)  
>I might not be able to update in a about two weeks this time because my dad's been getting fed up with me using his computer (Mine is still fried) so he changed his passwords so that I can't get on, but I have managed to hack it! Mwahahahahaaa!<strong>

**Please review! I want three reviews for the next chapter this time, do I make myself clear, ****_three_****. (I love you my fans! Well, that is if I actually _had_ any... so they'll just be imaginary for now.)  
><strong>**Peace out.**

**~Gianna Sparrow**


	10. Chapter 10

**Hi!  
>Yaysies! I have reached chapter ten! This is now the longest story I have <em>ever <em>written_! _I'm soooooooooo excited! (Though I'm not exactly sure why...)**

**I've _finally_ had a chance to update. Don't be upset if the whole MAJOR new thing that is going to happen seems a little rushed, like I haven't taken the time and care to write it properly. (My bad...)  
><strong>**Sorry if it's a little late (again), but when isn't it? Right?**

**I came up with something really funny when I was bored in class and couldn't understand what on earth the teacher was saying: instead of saying 'Chinduggery' you can say 'Skulduggerina'! (Pronounced: 'Skul-dugg-er-eena'.) Ahh, good times.**

**Please review!**

* * *

><p>"<em>Yes <em>_it __does, __my __life __is __in __danger. __I __want __answers, _now_.__"_

China hesitated. "I cannot give you that information, now be on your way."

"Cough up,"

"It's none of your business,"

"It is, now tell me."

"Never."

Alex checked that no one was looking. Thankfully there wasn't, the library was actually empty. _"__Perfect.__"_She gave China a mischievous grin, then closed her eyes. She pictured herself having lion claws, the image appearing in the centre of a golden shining light. She felt something similar to an electrical current surge through her body and into her hands. It was like getting hyped on redbull or candy, but without the horrible side effect of sugar drag, and it felt better. The claws shape was molded in her hands, the effect looking altogether quite strange. All of this happening in a matter of milliseconds. She opened her eyes and looked back at China, who wasn't even showing the slightest amount of concern for the girl that was now able of ripping her to shreds.

Razor sharp claws shot out of where Alex's fingernails should have been, glinting wickedly in the afternoon glow. She held them up to the beautiful woman's face, the tips pressing against her flawless skin. "You'll tell me if you know what's good for you,"

China's pale blue eyes sparkled evilly, black tattoos sprouting up all over her body. She touched two symbols imbedded in her forearms, a ball of blue energy forming in her hands. She waited a few seconds for the ball to grow larger, then threw it at her. Alex was sent flying over five meters. China moved her hands and rearranged the book shelves so that one of them came and hit Alex in the back. It slammed into the poor girl, the air leaving her. The shelf fell on top of her, crushing Alex under its weight. China walked up to her and knelt down beside her, grasping her Alex's face in her hand. "You shouldn't do that, I wouldn't want anything happening to such a pretty face."

"Don't… touch… me…" She choked, spluttering. Alex made one last fatal attempt to lash out her, failing miserably.

"That's a good girl." China walked back to her desk and sat down, ignoring Alex.

Alex felt faint, still gasping. She didn't know what to do, she had to get China to tell her but there was no way of getting out from under the shelf and doing so. She was utterly trapped, nothing could save her now. She tried pushing the books and shelf off her but it only made it worse. _"__There__has__to__be__another__way,__" _Alex thought, the weight was becoming unbearable. She pondered, suddenly remembering Grail being able to move things with his eyes.  
><em>"<em>_May be __it__'__s __something __that __comes __with __shape __shifting,__" _She scanned her surroundings to see if there was anything more likely that she would be able to do. No, nothing. _"__Well,__it__'__s __worth __a __shot,__"_

She moved her pupils over to one of the chairs at the table that they had been sitting at the other day. It had been made visible to her by the moving of the shelves. She concentrated, figuring that it was probably what she was supposed to do.  
>Alex tried with all her might to break one of the chair legs off, willing it to move. Nothing happened.<br>She moved her eyes from it to China's head. Nothing.  
>She tried imagining a tendril coming up out of one of her eyes and gripping the leg of the chair. Still nothing.<br>She tugged harder. Amazingly, she saw it move an inch.  
>She pulled on its leg even harder, the stub of wood didn't break off but the chair budged slightly.<br>She imagined two tendrils, one coming out of each eye, and gripping the leg. One on top and the other on the bottom. Alex slowly pulled the higher tendril towards the centre on the chair and the lower one outwards.  
>The leg started showing small little splinters coming out near it's top, then larger chunks started coming out. With one final tug the leg broke off, a bit messy on the top end but it was something.<br>The chair fell started falling over. _"__Oh... __shit!__"_ She dropped the leg wrapped the tendrils around the chair, holstering it up just before it crashed to the ground. As quietly as possible she lay it down on its side. Alex looked back to the leg, picking it up.  
>China still hadn't noticed a thing of her incredible achievement. <em>"<em>_Good,__"__  
><em>Inch by agonizing inch she brought it up higher into the air over China's head, the chances of her even seeing a slight glimpse of it were about ten billion to one. Sweat gathered on her brow, one mistake and China would hear.  
>Alex shifted under the shelf, bumping around a couple of books and making as much a noise as possible to grab China's attention, never taking her eyes away from the chair leg.<p>

China turned her ice cold gaze to Alex, making a pathetic attempt of looking surprise. "So you're trying to escape, I thought you would have given up all hope by now,"

"I'm not finished yet,"

"Really? I could have been fooled." She looked down at her watch, wondering how long this would take. "Fine, I have time to spare, get on with it."

"I intend to," She moved the wooden leg down to just about a meter behind her head. She shoved it back a bit more to get more room for it to gain speed. China was still looking towards Alex, not even sensing that an object was about to hit her.

Alex threw it at her head. It collided with China's cranium, knocking her out cold. Her head lolled forwards, then her chair fell backwards._ "__Holy__… __crap__… __I __think __I __killed __her...__"_ Alex bit her tongue. _"__No! __You __can__'__t __be __dead! __I__'__m __too __young __to __have __a __criminal __record! __Oh __God! __What __am __I __gonna __do!__"_ She felt like ripping her hair out but it was impossible because of her position. _"__OK__… __calm __down, __just __focus __on __getting __out __of __this __mess,__"_ Alex took a deep breath, keeping the matter to deal with later. She brought her eyes to the rest of the chair, picking it up with the tendrils and bringing it towards herself. It was half way there when she heard a noise, like footsteps. With great difficulty she turned her head to where it was coming from, the floating chair moved with her. A girl stood there, she had long black hair and wore black clothes made of a fabric she didn't recognize.

"New girl!" the shrieked, she hadn't realized that there was a floating chair yet.

"Alex," she said angrily.

"Who cares… W-what happened? Oh… my… God… How are you doing that?"

"Oh, uh… Hi Valkyrie… It's a long story… Could you lend me a hand?" She imagined the tendrils seeping back into her pupils, as this happened, the chair dropped to the ground. She felt like a tiny bug being squashed by an elephant.

"Uh.. yeah.. sure…" She diverted her eyes from the object that had been floating seemingly with nothing to keep it there, with magic or without. Valkyrie rushed over and knelt down next to Alex. Manipulating the air, Valkyrie lifted the shelf of her and put it back in its place.

"So, um… what are you doing here?" Alex asked nervously.

"I'm asking the questions now. How did you do that?"

Alex got up onto her feet and dusted herself off. "I… I honestly don't know myself…"

"But wasn't that elemental magic, you're adept, you were using the air?"

"But that's the thing, I wasn't, I was using my eyes."

"What do you mean 'you were using your eyes',"

"I just imagined tendrils coming out of them, and they picked things up…"

"Like a telekinetic? You know, moving things with your mind,"

"I guess that's what I did…"

"Well, you're the first I've ever heard of.

"So why are you here?"

"I came to see China about how the sanctuary knew about you. Why are _you_ here?""

"I came to see China as well, actually,"

"Where is she? She's usually at her desk but I can't see her,"

Alex hesitated. _"__Valkyrie__'__s __probably __the __safest __person __to __tell, __right?__" _She had no idea how wrong she was. "Look behind it." She pointed behind the desk.

Valkyrie walked around it, staring in horror at what she saw. "Oh… God… Is she d-dead?" China was lying on the floor, unmoving, as though nothing but a beautiful statue.

"I don't know! I just hit her in the back of the head with the leg of a chair, and her head, it just lolled forward and… and… I don't know!"

"What chair leg?"

"I broke one off that chair over there…" she pointed at it. "… and hit her on the back of her head."

"Why?"

"Well, looked what she did to me?"

"What did you do to make her do that?"

"I threatened her…"

"How dumb are you! You do not, under _any_ circumstances, threaten China Sorrows! She could have you killed with the wave of her hand! What did you threaten her with?"

"Look at my hands,"

She looked down at them. "You seriously did the lion parts again? Don't you remember what happened last time?"

"Of course I do, it was yesterday. And I know how to change back to normal now." Alex closed her eyes, picturing her normal self. She changed back almost instantly. "See,"

"Yes, I see. That was the stupidest idea someone has ever come up with, what were you thinking?"

"The fact that it was very likely that she could have been involved in spreading rumors that where eventually passed onto the sanctuary. I mean, I had to. That information got have gotten to anyone, _anyone_."

"I know, but that doesn't give you the right to kill someone!"

"How do you know if she's even dead?"

"There's blood on the back of her head,"

"There is?"

"Yes… and, oh, looky what I found here. The murder weapon, and there's a suspiciously pointy end covered in bloody goop."

"It is?.. Well… how can you be sure?"

"I just assumed…"

"Check her pulse!"

Valkyrie knelt down next to China and felt her wrist. "OK, fine. You win, she _is_ alive. Now help me pick her up, we have to take her to the sanctuary doctors."

"Does this mean I have to meet them today?"

"Yes, now get here, she's heavy."

Alex went up to China, taking the legs while Valkyrie took the arms. "You know, you _could_ use the air to lift her,"

"I could, but, why don't you do it? With your newly found 'ability'."

"She's tad bit too big to lift, I only discovered I could do that about ten minutes ago,"

"You could try?"

"No." Alex dropped her half of the body. "You do it,"

"Fine." She lay down her half, then held up her hands. China floated into the air, her beauty was mesmerizing. Valkyrie carried on walking with Alex behind, China in the air in front of them. They reached the door, the man with bowtie stepping in their way before they could make an exit.

"What are you doing with her?"

Valkyrie sighed, annoyed by him. "Taking her to the sanctuary doctors, she needs medical attention."

"Why?"

"Look at the back of her head."

He lifted it up, horrified. "Who did this?"

Alex interrupted before Valkyrie could answer for her. "Can't tell you."

"What do you mean?"

"I mean I can't tell you,"

Valkyrie spoke. "She did it."

"Why?"

"She tried to kill me first, it was self defense." It was the best excuse Alex could come up with.

"I don't believe you."

"OK, so, she threw a giant wave of blue energy at me, then trapped me under bookshelf. I had to escape."

"So you murder her?"

"She's not dead… _yet_." Valkyrie said. "But she will be if you don't get out of our way."

"Wait, do you have a vehicle."

"No."

"Then how do you expect to get there in time?"

"I don't know, perhaps you may have some suggestions?"

"Take my van." He took his keys out his pocket and put them in Alex's hand.

"We don't know how to drive,"

"Then I will." He took his keys back and budged past them. They followed, seeing there was nothing else to do but obey him. The three rushed down the stairs and out the building, rounding a corner to where a white van was parked. "Get in,"

They did as told, dumping China roughly in the back seat.

"Hey! Be careful with her!" He got in behind the wheel and started up the engine. They sped off to a part of the city Alex had never been to before.

"Hey Valkyrie, where are we going?" Alex asked curiously.

"Roarhaven," Valkyrie answered.

"My dad told me about it once. He said strange people live there, he won't let me come near the place,"

"They do, the entire neighborhood is for sorcerers only,"

"Really?" she asked disbelievingly.

"Really. Though everyone hates the people there. The sanctuary was forced to set up in Roarhaven because there was nowhere else the could go,"

"What's so bad about it?"

"The children of the spider live here,"

"I see. What did you mean earlier this morning when you said there were 'traitors' in the sanctuary?"

"Some of years back, a man named Baron Vengeous was broken out of a Russian prison. But this could only have been achieved with the help of a person working for his bunch in the Irish sanctuary."

"And did you find them?"

"No, it was more of her finding us. She killed one of the elder mages, Mr Bliss."

"What's an 'elder mage'?"

"There are three main members in the sanctuary government called the 'elders'; we have the grand mage which is like the president, and then we have the two elder mages which are like prime ministers."

"Sounds interesting enough. So what did she do for the sanctuary?"

"She was an administrator. They have access to every room, they know everyone that's inside the building, they know about all secret activity, it was the perfect position. And we fell for it. In the end this whole conspiracy led up to the old sanctuary headquarters being bombed, everyone inside was killed. Only me, Skulduggery and a prisoner we were escorting to his cell managed to escape. Though the prisoners leg was burnt off."

"Who was he?"

"The old grand mage, he tried to kill over eighty thousand people with a bomb in order to save his wife and child. A little bit corrupt, don't you think?"

"A bit more than little. So is that why the sanctuary had to move here?"

"Precisely. We should be there in a few minutes, don't expect to see anything pretty."

True to her word, they arrived a few minutes later. They got out the car, the place seemed deserted. There was only four or five people wandering about that looked at them strangely. A look Alex had never seen before, like a mix of hatred, jealously, selfishness, and one that she felt could only describe as the old grandpa 'get off my lawn!' one.

"I see what you meant, these people look awful," She said in disgust.

Valkyrie turned to her. "They are. Don't stare, they'll probably beat you up or something." She got China out the back seat and used the air to hover her. She looked lifeless.

"Are sure she's isn't dead?"

"Yes, she's still alive, for now."

The man in the bowtie guided them to a large rusty metal door in the ground, though it was more of a trapdoor to be honest. He was about to knock on it when a slit opened, a pair of hazel eyes peering out at them.

"Do you have an appointment?" Their voice was muffled so she couldn't tell if it were a man or a woman.

"No," The man in the bowtie said to them. "But I've got someone that needs medical attention, immediately."

"Who are they?" The person sounded impatient.

"China Sorrows."

The person sighed wistfully, one he had pulled himself together he answered them. "You may enter." The slit closed and the door burst open to reveal a rather ugly looking middle aged man. They stepped inside the door, the man sure no one had seen them, then swung it shut. "Come this way."

They followed him down a long slope lit by torches. After some time they reached the tunnels end. It lead to a large grimy stone room. There were about ten or so doors leading off it, some big and clumsy looking, others were a too small for anyone older than a ten year to fit through them. Alex thought it look horrible.

"Wait here." The man said to the two girls, him and the man with the bowtie took China away while Alex and Valkyrie dawdled around awkwardly.

"So, _this_ is the sanctuary you've been talking about," Alex was trying to make a conversation.

"Yup, this is it. _This_…_dingy_ piece of trash,"

"I think they need to do a bit of spring cleaning,"

"Spring was last month, it's summer now, you'll have to wait a while in order for them to do that."

"So, will I get to meet them today?"

"Possibly, it's more likely they'll refuse to see you or they'll do the usual thing and keep you waiting for two hours."

"They do that?"

"Yeah, they think it makes them look busy,"

"I think it just makes them look late,"

"Same here."

Alex and Valkyrie made mindless conversation for what felt like an age. Though it was more like half an hour, possibly one. They were just about to fall asleep on the floor when someone exited one of the larger doors. He wore a finely tailored navy suit with white pinstripes, gloves, freshly polished black shoes and a fedora hat. He was ridiculously skinny and his faced was masked in shadow via the lack of good lighting.

He looked surprised. "Valkyrie, New Girl, what are you doing here?" He went up to the two girls, taking his hat off to reveal nothing but a skull.

"The name is Alex, _Alex_. How many times to I have to tell that to you people?" Alex said angrily.

"I know what your name is, me and Valkyrie just agreed not to say it out loud. And still, why are you here?"

Valkyrie made sure she spoke before Alex could cover up her tracks, or, even worse, blame it on her. "Alex attempted to kill China."

If Skulduggery's face could go any paler than its current bone white, it did. "Ch-China's dead?" He voice sounded shocked.

Alex was getting really annoyed by now with everyone looking horrified and shocked, it was a perfectly normal thing for someone her age to kill a person. "No, not dead, _yet_. I need her alive for the time being, when I'm finished with her then maybe I'll put her out of her misery."

"Why does that sound somewhat homicidal?"

"Because maybe it somewhat is…"

"Valkyrie, what has she done to China?"

"Practiced her newly discovered 'power', one that I've never heard of, ever."

"Shape shifting?"

"No, a different one."

"What?"

"I'm sure if this is the right name for it but I think the term would be 'telekinesis'."

"But that's impossible, telekinesis takes decades of training, and besides, they went extinct hundreds of years ago,"

Alex was getting pissed, did he seriously need an example "If have any better explanation for what I did then I'm all ears."

"No, I don't actually. But I want proof, you could just be pulling my leg."

"Fine, do you have anything I could use?"

"I've got my gun…"

"I'll take it," She'd always loved the though of holding a real gun.

"I'm sorry, but I cannot allow you to do that. You're a child, it's a _gun_."

"To late."

Valkyrie had already snatched it out its holster and was handing it to Alex.

"Hey! You give that back this instant!"

"Look, it's not like I'm going to fire it or anything, I'm just going to make it float, that's all."

"I swear, if one of you has a bullet in your leg I will refuse to pay the hospital bill,"

"There won't be, now just let me show you."

Alex held it in her hand, dangling it in front of her face. She imagined the tendrils seeping out her pupils, the same ones that had nearly resulted with the loss of a life. They gripped firmly onto the gun, being careful not to go anywhere near the trigger. It was difficult to move, painful if not, but she managed. Slowly she took her hand away, bringing it up into the air. She held it there, only now she noticed how much it really hurt to do this. She's been focusing too much on the pain of the bookshelf above her to realize the pain. Alex blinked, the gun fell, clanking down onto the stone cold floor. Which, ironically, was made of stone.

Skulduggery stared at his gun. _"__How __is __that __possible? __She __couldn__'__t __have__… __unless__…"_

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><p><em><strong>Another<strong>_** cliffhanger!** **God, you must be like; _"NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!" _I love torturing you guys! Maybe you should try it out.**

**_P-p-p- rreeeeeviiieeeeeeeewww_! I need more!**


	11. Chapter 11

**Hey there!  
>Sorry about this being so short but I'm already almost finished next chapter. This might look even shorter (or long, I'm not sure) because for some reason everything in Doc Manager has gone twice as big on my profile. It looks terrible! The words have gone all big and bulbousy!<br>And good news! I'm planning on gettinga beta reader! But the person I asked hasn't told me if hey said yes and it's already been a _week_! I kind of pissed now.**

**Please review!**

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><p>Skulduggery grabbed Alex's hand running away with her and back through the door he had just exited. Valkyrie, confused, ran after them seeing there was nothing else she could do.<br>Alex was stunned, what was on earth was he doing. _"__Has __he __gone __mad?__"_ Skulduggery budged past men, woman and strange people with grey armor and scythes causing havoc through the sanctuary walls. _"__I__'__ll __make __a __note __to __ask __him __who __they... or what they __are.__"_He even trampled over an old, balding man.

Valkyrie carefully jumped over the old man. "Sorry, I think he's on a rampage." She said to him, he nodded as though this kind of thing happened to him every day of his life.

And even though the men in grey were drawing out their scythes at him, Skulduggery kept running, pulling Alex along with him. She tripped over her shoelace, but he still kept running, dragging her on the floor by the arm. He pulled her back up to her feet, almost tearing her arm out of its socket. The men with the scythes jumped in his way, trying as best they could to stop him, but he just pushed passed them. They began chasing, he was left with no other choice but using the air to throw _people_ that were walking down the corridor at them.

The grand mage, or as he was more widely known, Erskine Ravel, sat in is office. It seemed as there was always some little problem for him to sort out, always some prisoner escaping, always some pointless paperwork he had to do, never any time for himself these days. He'd never wanted to be grand mage, he liked to be out there, fighting the battles, the one arresting those men, to be free from all this nonsense. But all that had changed now, he'd been told it was for the good of the magical society, for the good of _Ireland_. And he'd do anything, _anything_, even be put through this hell to help his country retain its former glory, its title as the _cradle_ of magic.

Now he regretted it more than ever, this wasn't fair on him.

For example: Skulduggery Pleasant, one of his greatest friends… no, he wasn't allowed to call people his 'friends' anymore, he had to call them 'allies' for fear of public humiliation… was out there every godforsaken day doing what had to be done, separating the murderers from the innocent woman and children, 'the dirty work' they called it. Making the world a better place _physically_, not sitting at a desk and signing papers to confirm that this prisoner had to be moved to that cell, or _yes_, that man has been founded guilty of murder. Skulduggery protected the men and women who had families to go home to, knowing the pain and suffering of never being able to see them again as longed as one lived, or in his case, lived again.

So Ravel had decided to do something irrational, something preposterous, something unthinkable in anyone else's eyes. He had decided to take a _break_.  
>And who in the right mind could blame him? His job was beyond stressful, with the wait of having such a profound nation on ones shoulders, many people had cracked under the pressure in just matter of hours.<br>Of course no one knew about him taking time off, not even Ghastly Bespoke, they all thought he was working. He'd told them only to disturb him if either the world was going to end, or Justin Bieber had finally been assassinated. That was worth giving up his break, boy, what a party he'd throw, playing good old fashioned Beethoven and Mozart songs. Not that awful thing they called 'pop'. It was more like _poop_.

Ravel sat with his feet on his desk, wearing slip-slops, summer shorts, and a floral T-shirt with all the buttons undone showing of a large beer-belly. He'd made the cleavers install something wonderful and whimsical in his office the day before. There sat a beautiful flat-screen HD _3D_ TV on _his_ desk. How he'd always wanted one, now he could die, knowing he had finally got to experience having one. He wore one of those special hats with a beer carton on each side, each with a straw coming down to meet his mouth. Ravel was watching a rugby match, Ireland against its much feared past victor England. Surprisingly the Irish team was winning, with six goals and the English only with two. He liked rugby, it was one of the very few things on TV that was worth watching anymore.  
>He was enjoying himself thoroughly, everything was just the way he liked it.<p>

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><p>Skulduggery kept sprinting forwards, flinging the occasional person back at what was now big enough to be an army of the men with scythes chasing him.<p>

"Skulduggery! What the hell are you doing!" Valkyrie screamed at him. She was still running after him.

"I don't have time to explain!" He shouted over his shoulder. "Duck!" he threw a young woman back at the angry mob of scythe wielding people.

"Where?" she shouted. But it was too late, the woman was sent flying into Valkyrie's face, knocking her down to the floor. The mass of scary looking grey men jumped over the two, making sure not to trample them. Valkyrie got up from under the woman and continued following Skulduggery and Alex, now at the back of the mob.

Skulduggery reached a huge, double door, labeled with the words 'GRAND MAGE ERSKINE RAVEL'S OFFICE'. He burst through it, only to find the grand mage sitting there with his feet on his desk, wearing flip-flops, summer shorts, and a floral T-shirt that had all the buttons undone to reveal a rather large beer-belly. He had one of those things you put on your head with a beer carton on each side and a strangely shaped straws coming down to meet his mouth.

"Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaahhhhh!" Ravel, Skulduggery and Alex shrieked, the men with scythes said nothing. Alex shielded her eyes, Skulduggery doing the same with his eye sockets. Ravel slowly sank down under his desk. He came back up a few seconds later as though nothing had happened, his shirt done up and the dumb looking head gear gone. He looked a bit more presentable now, though still indecent. Skulduggery and Alex took their hands away from their faces, looking back to what they hoped looked like a slightly more respectable looking man.

"How may I be of your service?" Ravel said politely.

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><p><strong>God! Poor Ravel! How embarrissing!<br>If anyone wants their character in my story (Yes, I know that whenever anyone else asks for _me_ to put my character in their story I say no, but you aren't me, are you?) I will glady take them and fit them in somewhere. I am in short with ideas for characters. Though please,, nothing dumb and stupid, I'm looking for a DEAD SERIOUS character, that's is the sort of person I need for my story right now.  
>Just fill out the following form in your review:<strong>

_**Name Of Your Character:  
>Age (I need characters with 15 to 19 years of age):<br>****Nacionality:  
>Colour And Type (Is it curly, straight as hell, kind of wavy?) Of Hair:<br>Colour Of Eyes:****  
>Shape Of Face (Do they have soft or sharp features, is their face square-ish, that kind of thing.):<br>Personality:  
>Descipline (Sorry, but I'm only accepting adept because the character I need has to be adept or it wouldn't make any sense. No teleporters. And it has to be something that wasn't used in the book series. Possibly the last of their kind. If the character is elemental I may be able to find them some other place in the story.):<br>Favourite Colour (You'd be surprised just how much information you can get about somone just from something so small as this.):  
>What Kind Of Clothes They Wear (And there has to be more than one outfit, they are not cartoon people.):<br>****Any Other Information I Sould Know About Them:**_

**That's about it, though if you give me your character don't get your hopes up about them actually getting into the story, I'm a being a little particular abou them, I looking for a _very_ specific type of personality.**

** review! I want at least two reviews for the next chapter.**


	12. Chapter 12

**I am a saint! I've just loaded up _two_ chapters in one day! It's amazing! Praise me o' reviewers!**

**Please remember to review! It means a lot to me!**

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><p>"Oh, um… Erskine… uh, if now isn't the best time… we can come back later?.." Skulduggery offered helpfully.<p>

"No, it's fine, just get on with it, I was enjoying myself there." He sounded impatient, like he was missing a rugby match.

"Uh, yes… but, um, I can't really take you seriously when you look like _that_…"

"Oh alright! I'll change!" He scurried through a door to his left. Some ten minutes later he appeared wearing a plain black suit and a white shirt underneath, his tie had been tied hastily and looked scruffy. "Do I look good enough now!"

Alex turned decided to talk. "Look, whatever your name is, you need to take a chill pill."

"I agree Erskine," said Skulduggery. "You need a holiday,"

"What did it look like I was doing!"

"It looked like you were trying to look as fat and middle aged as possible." Alex was only trying to be helpful.

"Why thank you very much! Do you _know_ who you are talking to?"

"No,"

"I am Erskine Ravel, _the__grand__mage_! I demand respect!"

Skulduggery was confused, this wasn't the man he knew. "God, Erskine… you, you don't sound like your usual self today…"

His face went red. "It's because I'm tired of this stupid job! I can't take it anymore!"

That was it, Skulduggery had to act, fast. He gathered up water from the humidity in the air and threw it in Erskine's face. It landed square on, enough to piss anyone off. "You need to _calm__down_."

"You are making some form of sense there… just one question; what the bloody hell was that for!"

"I was only trying to help…"

"How was that _helping_!"

"It probably just made it worse… but, my point is, there is nothing to get worked up about, calm down, take it easy. We can arrange for you to have a holiday some time soon."

"Fine, but if my day gets worse than this then I quit."

"Fine by me, now were was I… ah, yes. _She__'__s_ here."

"Who is '_she_'?" He wasn't understanding anything.

"_The__one_.

"_What_one?"

"The next in the circle!"

"Which circle?" Ravel scratched his head.

"I'm talking about the Assassins Creed!"

Now Alex was confused. "Isn't that the name of a computer game?"

"It is also the name of something else!" Skulduggery was annoyed to the very depths of his non-existent soul.

"But that's impossible, telekinetics went extinct _hundreds_ of years ago." Ravel was becoming more confused by the second.

"I know what I'm talking about! She standing right in front of you!"

He turned to Alex. "_You?_"

"Well I know less of what's going on than you do, and I don't think you know anything, so I'm just gonna assume he's talking about me…"

"Of course I'm talking about her!"

"Skulduggery, you're telling _him_ to calm down, look at yourself."

"But he won't listen to me!"

Ravel needed this to be explained more clearly. "Wa-wait, could you repeat that for me?"

Skulduggery made a sighing noise even though he had no breath to sigh with. "As I was saying… _the__one_, the last member of the Assassins Creed, is _here_. This girl, right here." He pointed at Alex.

"You're not serious."

As he said this Valkyrie ran into the room, panting. "What'd I miss?"

Erskine was more confused than ever. "Valkyrie, why are you panting?"

"Sk-Skulduggery… was on a… rampage, to get… somewhere. I-I don't know why… b-but he w-was… throwing people at… the c-cleavers… and a p-person landed… in my face…"

"Oh… are you alright?"

"Just give me a minute…"

"OK…" He turned back to Skulduggery. "You can't be telling the truth, it's impossible."

"New Girl, show him."

"No, it hurts too much,"

"If you did it before you can do it now."

"No! If I do it again my eyes will probably fall out."

"Don't be ridiculous,"

"I'm not."

"Just do it!"

"Oh alright!" She moved her eyes over to a blue pen on Ravel's desk, imagining the tendrils seeping out her eyes and wrapping around it. She made sure the grip was firm, then brought the tendrils up. The pen hovered in the air, the glass casting dancing shadows everywhere. One of the tendrils slipped, bringing the other one down with it. The pen clattered to the floor, leaving Ravel dumbfounded.

"You… you're really _her_,"

Alex was clutching her eyes, they stung terribly. She rubbed them another time, then looked back up at him, her vision blurry. "Look, I don't know what you're talking about, who's this '_her_'?"

"The last member in the Assassins Creed, you're next in the circle."

"What circle?"

"There are currently five members, each one of them the last of their kind."

Valkyrie spoke. "Then why isn't Fletcher in the group?"

"You don't seriously think we'd let _him_ join the Assassins Creed, do you?"

"Now I see what you mean."

"But what _are_the 'Assassins Creed'?" Alex questioned.

"Yeah, and how come I've never been told about them?" said Valkyrie.

"Skulduggery knows more about them than me, let him tell you."

Skulduggery cleared his throat, he didn't really have a throat to clear so it didn't sound like much of anything. "Well, the Assassins Creed, as Erskine has said, are a group of the last of everything,"

"But what do they do?" Alex asked impatiently.

"I thought you would have picked that up from the title… They're the sanctuary assassins, all under the age of nineteen."

"OK, but why am I supposed to be apart of them?"

"Because you're the last of something, the sanctuary recruits the last of all the disciplines as their assassins."

"But isn't that risking valuable lives?"

"Well what else could we do with them?"

"Difficult question…"

Valkyrie had had this on her mind for some time now. "So are they the good guys?"

"They're not the _really_ the good guys, but they aren't the bad guys either…"

Alex knew what to call them. "You mean they're some level bad ass?"

"That's probably what you'd call them, they _are_ pretty bad ass."

"So, do I have to join them now?" Alex hadn't signed up for this, she liked having a quiet life.

"I'm afraid so. But look on the bright side, you can have a gun."

"That _is_ a good offer…"

"It's not an offer. You don't have a choice in the matter, you have to join."

Valkyrie thought this wasn't right, if Alex didn't want to be apart of them why did she have to? "Don't you think that's… I don't know… _unfair_?"

"No." Ravel answered. "We need them."

Alex thought about it for a few seconds. "I'll take it."

He sighed. "You'd have to even if you said no, you just wasted your breath."

"OK, who cares. What exactly am I signing up for here?"

Ravel thought about how to explain. "It's a lot more than assassinating, there's also getting information out of people, spy work, saving people, sometimes even blowing things up, it's a whole lot of everything. Though it's mostly just assassinating people."

"Sounds like fun."

"It is."

"Do I get paid?" She would've liked that.

"Yes…"

"How much?"

"Fifty or so euros per month,"

"That's a lot of money."

"It is."

She was quite eager by now. _"__Fifty __euros __per __month! __By __the __end __of __the __year __I__'__ll __have __paid __off __my __designer __shoe __debt!__" _she thought happily. "When can I start?"

Ravel giggled. "You're kidding, right?"

"Why would I be kidding?"

"You have to go through training first, you nut!"

"_What_?"

"You didn't really expect to be allowed to go out there with absolutely no training whatsoever and no idea what to do?"

"Uh… I think it's best I don't answer that question for fear of humiliation…"

"Kids these days…" he muttered.

"How, how bad is this 'training'?"

"About ten thousand times worse than navy seal training."

"Oh God no…"

"Sorry, can't do anything about that. You'll just have to deal with it for now."

"I… hate… you."

"That lovely." He looked down at his watch. "As you may have noticed, I'm missing a rugby match right about now. You may be dismissed." They turned around and were about to exit when; "Wait!" Ravel shouted. "I forgot to ask, what the girls name is?"

Alex answered. "Alex Waters."

She walked off without another word, Skulduggery and Valkyrie following behind. The barged through the army of men with scythes that still hadn't moved from their position outside the door. They went back down the winding corridors and such, there were people lying there on the ground rubbing their heads, failing stand upright, most likely victims of Skulduggery's rampage. After sometime a navigating their way through the nearly endless spree of passage ways they reached the front room and sat down at some conveniently placed chairs.  
>Alex was still waiting to be able to have her little 'word' with China, while Valkyrie and Skulduggery were just staying to make sure she didn't do anything <em>too<em> drastic to the currently injured woman.

Alex was bored so she decided to go on a question spree. "Who were those guys with the scythes?" she asked Skulduggery.

"The cleavers, they're a bit like our military."

"You have a _military_? It was hard to believe that magic people had a government, but a _military_?"

"Why wouldn't we have one?"

"I don't know, maybe because some non-magic person could just come and see them and be like 'Oh! I wonder who these scary dudes in armor with menacing scythes are?'" She glared at him.

"We don't let them wander around."

"I still think it's a bad idea."

"I'd love to see you come up with anything better."

She mumbled something angrily under her breath, then left the matter.

About half an hour later the man with the bowtie came out of door, walking towards the three of them. "Good afternoon Mr Pleasant."

Skulduggery stood up to greet him. "Good afternoon. Is China awake?"  
>"Miss Sorrows hasn't awoken yet, the doctor says she will be soon. I suggest the young lady doesn't try that again."<p>

"I agree. May we see her?"

"If you make sure she doesn't kill her, then yes."

Skulduggery nodded his head.

"Come with me."

Valkyrie and Alex got up from their seats, following Skulduggery and the man with the bowtie. He led into the door he'd just came from and through more winding corridors. He stopped outside a door labeled 'MEDICAL CENTRE' and took a ring of keys out his pocket. He fumbled around until he found the right one, then put it in the key hole and turned. The lock clicked and he pushed the heavy door open to reveal the only place in the entire sanctuary with working light bulbs. China Sorrows lay in a hospital bed near the back of the room, one of those plastic things filled with oxygen over her mouth.

"I'll leave you to yourselves." the man in the bowtie said. He exited the room, leaving the key in the door for them.

Skulduggery, Valkyrie and Alex grabbed a chair from the side and sat down next to China's bed. Her head was bandaged up and her eyes were closed, as though in endless slumber. She was beautiful, even in this state. "China?" Skulduggery said, shaking her hand. "Wake up,"

She stirred in her bed, slowly her eyes fluttered open.

"China? Can you hear me?"

She mumbled something sleepily.

Skulduggery shook her hand again, hoping for a reply.

"Wha-what happened?" China's voice sounded weak.

"I'm not quite sure. Do you remember anything?"

"A little,"

"What?"

"I-I was with the child," she pointed at Alex. "w-we were fighting over something… a-and… I don't recall anything else…"

Skulduggery turned to Alex. "She isn't strong enough to tell us anything, we'll come back tomorrow." He looked back at China. "Take it easy." there was something about the way he said it, like he was showing some degree of affection to her.

He tilted his head to the door, signaling for them to leave. They got up, going back through all the passage ways that led to the main hall. The three went up the tunnel and out the trap door. There was a warm breeze and the sun had gone down. Valkyrie was the first to ask questions.

"What was that?" she asked Skulduggery.

"What was what?"

"They you spoke to China?"

"I don't follow?"

"You sounded _affectionate_."

"No I didn't,"

"Yes you did," Alex said.

"You must have been hearing things."

"I'm pretty sure I wasn't," said Valkyrie

"Yes, you were." He started walking off across towards his beloved Bentley and waited there for them.

"You know, there's nothing wrong if you like her!" she shouted as she walked up to him and the Bentley. "Everyone likes her! It's inventible!"

"Shut up." he said angrily.  
>Alex still hadn't started to come towards them.<p>

"You coming?" Valkyrie shouted.

"No, I've got my own ride now!" she shouted back.

"What?"

"You'll see!" Alex closed her eyes, envisioning a sparrow in the centre of a nearly blinding golden light. The energy ran through her, like an electric current passing through water. It felt wonderful, liked getting hyper but only a thousand times better. She felt herself transforming, the mere thrill was incredible. Alex opened her eyes, all the world around her looking huge and round. She jumped up into the air, flapping her wings as hard as she could. She flew across the road to Valkyrie and Skulduggery, landing on the bonnet of the Bentley.

"Impressive." said Skulduggery.

"It is!" she said happily.

Valkyrie started giggling.

"What?"

"Your voice! You sound like a four year old hyped on candy!"

"Meany!"

"I'm not mean! You just sound so stupid!"

Alex didn't want to stay any longer if she was going to get insulted so she took off, leaving without saying goodbye. She went in the direction of her house, stopping occasionally to rest a bit. Half an hour later she arrived back at her bedroom window, seeing that it was open she flew in and sat on her bed. The reflection was still sitting at Alex's desk, doing her homework for her. "Hi." Alex said.

"Hello." it replied. "I'm nearly finished."

"Good." Alex pictured herself normally in her mind and changed back. She sat down at her computer to check her e-mails. Usually she always had one from Ronny but today there was nothing.

"Done." the reflection said, putting the book she had been writing in away.

"You can go back into the mirror now." said Alex, it's company was freaking her out.

It got up and walked to the mirror, stepping inside. Alex touched it, receiving it's memories. There was something that felt strange about them. She went through them until she found what. The reflection had hung out with Valkyrie at school, it had to have been Valkyrie's reflection that it'd been with because she'd been with Valkyrie all day. _"__And __since __when __does __Valkyrie __go __to __my __school?.. W__ell __it __makes __sense, __she _does _live __in __my __neighborhood__… __anyway, __doesn__'__t __matter.__"_ She left it think about some other time and went to her closet, changing into pajamas. She was tired so she got in bed, wondering when she'd get to meet the so called 'Assassins Creed'. She was too tired to think about it for very long and drifted off into the land of slumber.

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><p><strong>Yes, I could not come up with a better name for them other than 'Assassins Creed', forgive me.<strong>

**The bad ass guys and the bad guys will appear soon! I promise! (Though I don't normally keep my promises so it's highly unlikely that'll keep this one.)**

** !**


	13. Chapter 13

**Congradulations Onyx Shadows! You have officially won the chance to get your character in my story! Sorry about you having to be the bad guy, but I explained why, so, yeah... But lucky for you, the next chapter is following the bad guy, so you get to be the main character in it!**

**And just a little bit of explaination for everyone: there is a french guy in this chapter who's name is 'Monet'. It is not pronounced 'Mon-et', it is pornounced 'Monei' or 'Monay'. Don't get confused. And 'Monet' is his last name, you don't get to find out his first name until a couple of chapters later. Also, he has a really bad accent, and to show you how h talks I spelt every single (OK, almost every.) he says wrong.**

**Enjoy! And don't forget to review!**

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><p>The streets of Dublin were illuminated by the bright moonshine that flickered over the earth, making all the building cast beautiful dancing shadows.<br>A young girl rode across the streets on a motorcycle, a sleek black Harley Davidson, her helmet covering her face. She was dressed all in black, a protective vest and waist high jacket, gloves, black trousers and flat leather boots with the initials O~S on her left boot. She had a backpack strapped to her back, it looked dull, a bit too dull, like she was purposefully trying to disguise its presence.  
>She was driving through the dangerous part of town, where all the thugs and street gangsters hung out. She stopped outside a narrow and gloomy alley, turning off the motorcycle's engine and getting of its seat. She pulled her helmet off, shaking her mid length brown hair around to get it of her face. She looked eighteen, with soft features and dark blue sparkling eyes that were lit up by the bright moon. Her skin was a pale and her lips were a stunning soft pink. Though there was something about her, parts of her <em>flickered<em> under the night sky.  
>She took the backpack off, undoing the zip, stuffing her hand inside and pulling something out. It was a brown cloak, it looked old and scruffy, and it was, but it was good enough for her needs. She put it on, its big hood masking her face in shadow. Absolutely nothing of her showed. She shoved her hand back in the backpack, taking out a briefcase. She hid it under the brown cloak, stuffing it into a large hidden pocket. Making sure that her motorcycle was hidden from any passers by, she walked off further down the alley, knocking an old battered down door that had a small slit on it. Footsteps could be heard, and soon the slit opened to reveal a pair of green eyes.<p>

"Password." a man said gruffly.

"My car broke down, can I use your phone?" the girl replied.

The slit closed and the door was opened by a tall man who's head scraped across the ceiling. He stepped aside for her to pass, locking the door behind her.

She stood in an overcrowded tavern, lit by harsh yellow light. Many people sat on barstools at the countertop while others sat in dark corners whispering things of secrecy to each other.

She went up to the bartender, slipping her hand into one of the cloak's pockets. "I wish to see Fredrick Heins." She said in hushed tones.

The man instantly understood the codename. "No can do, he ain't expectin' no one," the way he spoke was sloppy, like he'd never been to school in his life and couldn't speak the English language decently, probably an American.

"Tell him that Onyx Shadows is here to see him."

The man froze in his tracks, fear sparking up inside him. "B-b-but he ain' expectin' no one… oh God, please don' kill me!" he brought his arms over his face in terror, waiting for her to strike him.

She pulled her hand out her pocket, bringing out a sharp dagger that glinted wickedly under the yellow light. Grabbing him by the collar of his shirt, she held the blade up to his throat. "Take me to him now."

"Yes ma'am!" his voice had gone all pathetic, like that of a four year old girl. No one else in the tavern bothered to notice them, thinking that it was just normal drunk behavior.

She shoved the blade back into its pocket, figuring that it was unnecessary on such and easily persuaded man.

As he led her through a door labeled 'EMPLOYEES ONLY', she stuck her finger into a nerve on the back of his neck, insuring that he wouldn't be able to escape. They walked through endless corridors, eventually reaching a flight of stairs that led underground. They hastily descended them, Shadows still never taking off her disguise. Halfway down the man stopped and turned to the wall, pushing on one of the many unpainted bricks. The wall slid to the side, unveiling a secret passageway. There were but two torches on the right wall, one of them had no flame. She let go on the man, making him go in first. He took the unlighted torch down from its post and dipped its tip in the already flaming one, alighting it. Seeing that it was safe, she stepped into the passageway. The man quickly pushed on a different brick, the wall beginning to recede back into its former place. She dipped her hand back into her pocket, bring out the dagger at lightning speed and throwing it towards the door. It landed right between were the fake wall was about to meet real one, holding it in its place.

Shadows brought her thumb back onto the nerve, making him wince. "Nice try." She snatched the torch out his hand, and held it close to his face. "Do that again and I'll burn you."

The man gulped nervously, thinking about what other horrific things she might decide to do as well. He carried on leading her down the passageway, after some time reaching a door. He fumbled around in his pocket, bringing out a rusty metal key. Lodging it into the doors lock, he turned it. She stepped back to allow him open it and go inside.

The room was small and ugly, like a prison cell, though it had much better lighting than everywhere else in the building, it was actually fairly decent. A thirty-something man sat in the centre on an old chair, resting his feet on a table. He wore brown trousers with supports coming over his shoulders, a white vest covered in sweat stains and brown boots with the occasional toe sticking out one of their many holes. His hair was a dark brown, almost black and disgustingly greasy, he had a thin little mustache and had a tooth pick sticking out his mouth. He was reading a newspaper that had a date on it from over three weeks ago.

"Vat eezz eet Hugo?" he had a strong French accent.

"Y-ya 'ave a visitor sir," his voice sounded puny and feeble, nothing out of the usual.

"Hoo?"

"O-O-Onyx Sh-Shadows,"

"Hoo on earrt eezz 'O-O-O-Oneex Sh-Shadowzz'?" he asked as if the so called 'Hugo' was an idiot. Probably was.

"I-I meant _Onyx__Shadows_,"

"Aahh, zow I zow hoo yoo meeen… Tell zem to ggho avay." he said rudely.

"I wouldn' advise that sir,"

"Enough of this nonsense," the girl said angrily. "Get out my way." Her cloaked figure shoved past the imbecilic Hugo, stepping into the Frenchman's view. Seeing there was no use for it now, she pulled the cloaks hood off her face. She was still flickering in a way that almost made her look like a hologram, but anyone else would have known better.

The man put down the newspaprer and clapped his hands, amused. "Vell look vat dee cat trrew ap. Zo, Oneex, vat bringzz yoo heerr?"

"Master will not appear for low life scum such as yourself."

The man waved his hand dismissingly to Hugo. "Vait outside." He turned back to Shadows. "Makeeng yoo doo heezz derrty vorrk agghain I seee?

"It's mine too."

"Vy don't drrop heem and ggho? Hee takezz evreeting yoo 'ave vor heemselv, yoo'd be betterr ovv weetout heem aneevay,"

"Because he promised me something, and he's the only one that I know will keep it."

"I dought yoo ver done weet all dat?"

"Monet, you know that I'll _never_ be done with all that."

"Yoo zon't zow vat you'rre mezzeeng weet,"

"I know perfectly well."

"Hee'zz uzeeng yoo Oneex, next teeng _yoo__'__ll_ be one ov hee'zz veecteemzz."

"Stop it! I didn't come here for you to lecture me!"

"Den vat deed yoo come 'ere vor? Veaponzz? Ammuneetion? Drugzz Poizion?"

"None of those types of things."

"I 'ave evereedeeng on dee black marrket… vor a pricze, ov carrse. No need to be shy weet arzkeeng,"

"Information, I've heard rumors about there being a new member added to the Assassins Creed."

"My apologies, but… 'onestly, I zow noteeng avout zem."

She laid the briefcase down on the table, opening it. "Maybe this will jog your memory?" It was filled to the brim with ten euro notes.

"Eet 'as eeneed… Vat do yoo vant to zow?"

"Are they male or female?"

"I vant dee money virst."

"How much per question?"

"Feefty euros."

"Fine." Shadows put her gloved hand inside the briefcase and took out five notes, putting it in his palm.

"Female."

"How old is she?" she put more in his hand.

"Feefteen."

"What is her discipline?" Even more was given to him.

"Shapesheefdeeng, but she got een dee Azzazzeenzz Creed vor telekeenezeezz."

"What does she look like?" she gave him extra this time. _"__It__'__s__worth__it.__"_ she thought.

"I 'ave a file on herr, eef yoo vant? Name, photos, background, verr she leeves, evereedeeng. Eet vill zave yoo zome time."

"I'll take it."

"Not zo vast, more money."

She put another ten euros in his palm, anticipating what would come.

Monet put the large pile in his pocket, then got up and went up to a door at the left. He took a key out his other pocket and unlocked it, going inside. He came out holding a yellow file; it had the words 'TOP SECRET' stamped on it in black ink.

Shadows snatched it from his hands, looking over it with wide eyes. She put it inside the briefcase. She smiled evilly, an air of eeriness about her. "Thank you, though you do realize that I can't let you live now, right?"

He stopped, panic stricken. "B-b-b-but, come own Oneex, vee arre vriends, yoo zow I vood'een't tell aneevone."

"Yes, you would. It's your job to, you could have the cops chasing me in a matter of minutes."

"Yoo zow I vood'eent ggho aneeverr near zem. Zey vood put me een prreeson weet yoo."

"I don't trust you Monet."

"Vet yoo trust Chrome, overr me?"

"I told you to stop that! Me working for him is none of your concern."

"Eet eez, I vorry avout yoo Oneex. You'rre putteeng yourr live een dangerous 'ands, I zon't vant to zee yoo land op dead like dee rest ov zem."

"Be quiet." Shadows said snappily. She reached inside her pocket for a weapon.

He started pleading "Just, pleaze, zon't keell me, vee can make a deal."

There was a deafening sound that ran through room. "Sorry, but it's already too late." She stood there holding a magnum pistol in her hand.

Monet dropped to the floor, a bullet in his head. He was already dead before he knew what hit him.

Shadows bent down next him fumbling around in his pocket for the money she'd given, taking it out and putting it back in the briefcase. She closed his still open eyes, actually feeling somewhat sorry for him. "Goodbye old friend." She pulled her hood back over her head, hiding her face, got up, put the briefcase back under the cloak and was just exiting the door when Hugo came running towards her.

"Sir! Are you alright!" He still hadn't noticed her dark figure at the end of the hidden passage way. "Sir! I heard gun shots! And…" He stopped when he saw Shadows.

She grabbed him in a head lock, holding a blade to his neck. "If you make so much as another sound I will make sure you'll never see the sun again."

"Sir! 'Elp!"

"What did I tell you!" She slit his throat and stepped away, allowing him to drop to the floor. Shadows walked to the end of the long dingy passage, pushing the brick in the wall to make the fake wall open fully. She picked up her fallen dagger and left, not taking a single look back.

_**Later…**_

Onyx Shadows walked solemnly in through a large double door and into a large room with an incredibly high ceiling.  
>A handsome man leant over an open window, staring out at the bright moon that lit up the dark sky. He had straight, jet black shoulder length hair with a pale white streak in it. He was a ghostly pale, with striking blue eyes, he was clean shaven and had a sharp chin. He wore black shoes, black trousers, a white shirt and a grey waste coat. He was well built and very tall, about 1.82 meters.<br>He looked over to the almost invisible girl entering the dim room, her dark black clothes and brown hair that fell in soft wrinkles at the bottom.

"Good evening Onyx." He said politely, his voice was smooth like velvet.

"Good evening master. I got what you asked for." she handed him a yellow file, with the words 'TOP SECRET' printed in black ink on the cover.

He took it in his hand examining, looking to make sure every page was in its place. "Thank you." He pulled a bundle of cash out his trouser pocket. "Your payment."

She was silent for a few seconds "I had to kill him you know."

"And?"

"He was a friend."

He sighed. "What did I tell you about getting attached to people?"

"That's it's pointless, we're just going to have to land up killing them anyway."

"Exactly. We will not speak of the matter again, do I make myself clear?"

"Yes master." She left without another word, lost in her own thoughts.

* * *

><p><strong>Mwahahahahaaaa! Cliffhanger! And even worse, you don't know who 'master' is! Oh how I love to torment you! XD (That's a little picture of me laughing my head of for the people like my mum that have no clue what the hell 'XD' is supposed to mean.)<strong>

**Please review! It's my first ever chapter that follows the bad guys and I REEEEAAAAALLYYYY want to know what you thought of it! And for the people that are just lazy to log in, could you just take the time to log in for once, anonymous reviews are sooooooooooooo annoying. I can't thank you guys for saying nice things about the story if you do that!  
>But anyway, REMEMBER TO REVIEW! They really make my day!<strong>


	14. Chapter 14

**OK, before you start cursing my existance, just hear me out on this: I am really sorry I haven't updated in so long. I know it was like four and a half weeks or something, but you've got to cut me some slack. You have no idea how busy I've been.  
>First: both my grandparents were in hospital.<br>Second: my copy of Death Bringer I ordered finally arrived (I was so excited! I read it in two days and I read it again.) along with The Hunger Games trilogy (That I actually think I now preffer to Skulduggery Pleasant. And yes, you have the right to call me a traitor.) and read that.  
>Third: (obviously) school.<br>Fourth: my dad's cousin's daughter (Her name's Maria-João. I would give you the surname but you would use that to track her _and_ me with it. Stalkers... And besides, I couldn't because I honestly don't know what it is), Maria João's German husband (No, I am not living in Germany. Her husband just happens to be German), my dad's other cousin's daughter (I don't remember her name, all I remember was thar it was 'something'-Maria. Yes, my family's got a lot of Marias), my dad's same cousin's other daughter's (Who lives in America) husband (His Merican accent is so weird. He had to come without her because apparently she's very ill), me and my family and my freshly out of hospital grandparents all had a big family reunion (I hate socializing. I'm the kind of girl that would rather have books than friends any day) together (It was awful and the dining room was too small. Everyone was packed in there like sardines).  
>Fifth: the fact that I wrote a really awesome chapter that was supposed to be this one but then I realized that the story wouldn't sound good if I used it straight away, so I had to come up with something else and safe that one for later.<br>Sixth: my brother kept hogging the computer so I didn't have any time to write.  
><strong>**Seventh: when I did finally manage to get a turn the computer kept crashing (Luckily my dad was able to fix it or both the computers in my house would be broken).  
>And eighth: there was something else that was going to add but I just can't remember it now.<strong>

**OK, I think that's enough of listing all the reasons why I updated so late. You came here to read the story, not to listen to me babbling on nonsesically.**

**PLEASE R&R!**

* * *

><p>Alex's eyes fluttered open dreamily. Sunlight was pouring into her room from the window and she pulled her blanket over her head to block it out. She heard a voice speak to her in a mixture of sarcasm, mocking and laughter.<p>

"So you're afraid of sun now, are you?" the voice said playfully.

Alex knew who it was instantly. Her best friend, Ronny. "Ronny, what're doing here? I'm trying to sleep." She pulled the blanket back off her head and looked at her through half-closed eyes. She had her brown hair done back in a delicately made plait and was wearing jeans, trainers and a pretty orange and yellow long-sleeved shirt with the words 'Don't hate me 'cause I'm beautiful' neatly in bold lettering. She sat on a chair beside Alex's bed, looking a little annoyed.  
>Alex was in no mood for her bubbly friend at the time. She knew spending time with Ronny was going to be awful. She hated keeping secrets from her. They always told each other everything. And even worse, Alex was terrible at keeping them and a bad liar. She knew that she going to blurt out everything she had learned about magic, about how she had powers, could shape shift and apparently move things with her mind. Of how she wanted to do symbol magic but already had so much on her pallet with having found out she could do telekinesis. She wanted to tell Ronny everything but knew she couldn't. Keeping her second life secret was going to be harder than she thought. Alex was brought back from her daydream by Ronny's answer.<p>

"Did you forget? It's a public holiday. You said we were going to go out."

"Yeah, but. How does that sentence include 'barge into my house and wake me up annoyingly'?"

"No, it doesn't. And I didn't barge into your house. I grabbed your spare key that I'm not supposed to know about from under that rock, opened your door, ran up the stairs and woke you rudely."

"That's called barging into someone's house."

Ronny faked a look of surprise. "Is it?"

"Yes. It is. It's trespassing as well."

"Oh. Well then I have a lot of people to apologize to." She smirked sarcastically at Alex.

"Yes, you do. So if you wouldn't mind, could you go and apologize to them now, while I sleep peacefully?"

"Of course, whatever you say." She smirked again, not getting up from her seat.

"You know, usually when somebody says they're going to leave, they leave."

"Well, my name isn't somebody, is it?" Again, with the smirking.

"Stop doing that." Alex said grumpily.

"Stop doing what?" Ronny said in that annoyingly playful and sarcastic voice.

"You just did it again."

"Did what?"

The voice at the back Alex's head spoke. _"__Just __punch __her __already! __That__'__ll __get __her __to __shut __up, __right?__" _But Alex just ignored it. "That thing. With the sarcastic-ness and the smirking. It's really annoying. Stop it."

"Why, I have no idea what on earth you're talking about." she said, doing it once again.

"Don't make me hurt you Ronny." Alex's voice was becoming serious.

Ronny held her hands up in mock-cry. "Ah! She's so scary!" she said to no one at all in particular. "Don't let her hurt me! I'm too young to die!"

"_Seriously,__"_ said the voice, _"__just __punch __her __already. __She__'__s __getting __on __your __nerves. __People __shouldn__'__t __be __allowed __to __get __on __your __nerves. __It __should __be __illegal __or __something.__"_

Alex smiled to the voice in agreement, then turned back to Ronny. "If you insist." she said, mimicking to perfection Ronny's annoying smirk. She clenched her hand into a fist and sent it at Ronny. It touched down on Ronny's arm softly.

"_What?__"_ the voice asked. _"__That__'__s __it? __You__'__re __just __going __to __give __her __a __little __tap __on __the __arm? __That__'__s __not __a __punch! __That__'__s __practically __a __friendly __gesture!__"_

"_Shut__up.__" _Alex told it.

"Hey!" Ronny exclaimed in a feeble attempt of looking like she was wounded as rubbed the spot where Alex's fist had landed. "She's begun her attack! God save us!"

Alex rolled her eyes, pulling the blanket back over her head.

"Hey! Come on! I didn't come all the way here just to watch you sleep. Get up!"

"First, it's not 'all the way here'. You live around the corner. It's an incredibly short walk. Second, no. And third, leave me alone."

"Ooh, someone's cranky. Did you forget to drink your coffee? You probably did."

"You're forgetting that I don't _drink_ coffee. And I'm not cranky. I'm just tired."

"Crank equals tired. They're the same thing. Not get _up_." Ronny ripped the blanket off Alex and pulled her out of bed, grunting with the effort. Once she had Alex lying on the floor looking up at her, Ronny hauled her to her feet. "Now get dressed. I'm going to go make myself some tea."

"I haven't given you permission to use my kettle, my tea-bags, my sugar, my tea-spoons _or_ my cups. Therefore, you _can__'__t_ make yourself some tea."

"Don't care." she said merrily, and skipped off out of Alex's room.

Alex mumbled something about why she'd ever become best friends with Ronny in the first place then went to her closet to pick something out. She grabbed her usual comfy favourite: her red and grey Timberland trainers; a pair of jeans and her hot pink long sleeved shirt with a picture of a skeleton with giant baby blue sparkly sunglasses, an ipod plugged into where it's ears should be and the words 'NO MUSIC' written at the top and the words 'NO LIFE' written at the bottom. She'd grown to like this one in particular since she'd met Skulduggery, it reminded her of him.

**(A/N: I actually do have this outfit. Skeleton shirt and all. It makes me laugh every time I look at it. I wore it to school on Friday. Friday was the 16-12-2011 for me, by the way.)**

Alex combed her long, wavy blonde hair, brushed her teeth and trotted down the stairs to the kitchen where she found Ronny staring at the kettle impatiently while she waited for the little 'ding!' that signaled that it had finished boiling.

"Ronny, you do realize that the kettle isn't even plugged in?" Alex asked.

Ronny turned to Alex, a look of horror and anger on her face. "It isn't?" She seemed like she was about to burst into tears.

"Yeah, it isn't. How could you not notice that?"

Her eyes moved from side to side awkwardly. "I… uh… Because I'm a dumb blonde?"

"You're a brunette."

"Oh… dammit… uh… Because I'm dumb anyway?"

"Yeah, that's probably it."

Ronny smiled sheepishly, grabbing the kettle's plug and stuffing into the socket. She flicked the 'ON' switch and started waiting again.

Alex rolled her eyes and walked over the counter and made herself a bowl of muesli. After picking out all the little bits of fruit – she hated the little bits of fruit – and put them back in the box. She sat down at the table and dug in. She hadn't noticed how starving she'd been. Her reflection had eaten her dinner for her and the last time she'd eaten was the day before at breakfast time. Her stomach was growling and thanked her gratefully when she started eating. She ate half of it, then looked up to see Ronny sitting in front of her, slowly sipping tea from a pretty blue and white porcelain mug.

"That's my mum's favourite mug," Alex calmly. "If you break it I'll kill you."

Ronny shrugged. "Like I said earlier, I don't care."

"But _I_ care."

"And I don't care if you care." She shrugged again, taking another sip of tea.

"She'll make you pay for it."

"So?"

"It's an expensive mug."

"And I'm an expensive gal."

"But I doubt you're parents will give you the money after our designer shoe debt thing." Alex's voice was still calm, as if she didn't _really_ care but she knew it would be better if she informed Ronny.

"Well then I'll pay for it with my _own_ money."

"You don't have any money. All your money goes to paying for those shoes."

Ronny paused, taking this into consideration. "Then I'll blame it on you." she said smugly, smirking mischievously.

"If you blame it on me I'll hurt you."

"And you really expect me to be scared of that threat when you used it fifteen minutes ago and all you did was _pat_ me?"

"But that was then. I was messing around then. Now I'm serious. Break it and blame it on me and I'll hurt you for real."

Ronny laughed. "Please. Get real."

"I _am_ real. Very much so. I have skin, muscles, tendons, blood, bones, a heart etc. I've got the whole shebang. So, I say again. I _am_ real."

"I didn't mean it like _that_."

"But you _said_ it like that."

"Get to the point."

"I already have."

"And that is...?"

"That I will hurt you and it will hurt."

"That doesn't sound very scary."

"It should, coming from me."

"And why is that?"

"Because you forgetting something."

"And what could I possibly be forgetting?"

"That I'm a black belt in martial arts."

"Oh… right… that…"

"And I will warn you one more time. If you break the mug, you die. If you break the mug and blame it on me, I'll break _you_ and allow you to remain broken for the rest of your pitiful life – which I doubt will be very long if the ambulance doesn't arrive on time."

"Meep." Ronny said nervously.

"Meep indeed. And I hope you realize that the second option is far more terrifying than the first."

Ronny gulped.

"So which will it be?"

Ronny froze, gently placing the pretty blue and white porcelain mug on the table and pushing away from herself slowly. She stayed frozen in time for a few seconds longer, then answered, sounding weak. "Neither."

"Excellent. I see we both understand each other in this matter. No?"

"Y-yes."

"Lovely. Now, we will forget this ever happened and go back to the usual state of norm. Agreed?"

"Agreed." Ronny confirmed in a shaky voice.

"Perfect."

Alex went back to eating her cereal, while Ronny carefully took very cautious sips of tea from the mug. Once finished, Alex picked the bowl up and put it in the sink. She turned to go and sit at the table when her cellphone rang. She looked down at the caller ID. Valkyrie. "Excuse me a minute." she said to Ronny and walked into the bathroom and took the call.

"_What __is __it, __Valkyrie?__" _Alex asked.

"_Oh, __nothing __really.__" _Valkyrie said casually._ "__I __just __wanted __to __point __out __that __you __can __be _very _scary __when __you __want __to __be.__"_

"_What are you talking about?"_

"_I'm talking about just now. You threatening that 'Ronny' person."_

"_First, her name isn't 'that 'Ronny' person', she's my best friend, named 'Ronny'. And second, how the hell did you know that happened?"_

"_It's very simple actually. I've been watching you."_

All colour drained from Alex's face. _"__What?__"_

"_I said I've been watching you."_

"_But why?"_

"_Safety precautions. Trust me, I don't want to be doing this. I'd much rather be doing other things, but Skulduggery told me to."_

"_Why would he tell you to do something like that?"_

"_Well, __you _are _the __last __telekinetic. __I__'__m __sure __plenty __of __people __would __want __you __dead.__"_

"_That isn't very comforting."_

"_I know. I'm looking at you now, by the way."_

"_From where?"_

"_Your neighbour's roof."_

Alex's head shot to the window, where she could make out a figure in black, holding a cellphone in one hand and holding a pair of binoculars up to her eyes with the other. Alex jumped back when she saw Valkyrie crouching there, shocked.

Alex heard Valkyrie laughing through the phone. _"__Oh __God! __You __should __have __seen __the __look __on __your __face! __It __was __priceless!__"_

"_Ha ha ha, very funny, Val. I'm sure I looked comical."_

"_You did!"_

"_And Valkyrie, how could you hear me talking to Ronny? You're all the way over there and we're all the way over here."_

"_Oh, I planted listening devices all over your house last night. You don't mind, do you?"_

"_Of course I mind! You're invading my privacy!"_

"_If it helps, it's for your best interest."_

"_And I wouldn't care if you were doing it to save the world!"_

"_OK, OK. Calm down. I'll talk to him about it. But there's nothing I can do about it now."_

Alex took a deep breath. In through the nose, out through the mouth. Allowed her thoughts to go together and make more sense. _"__Valkyrie, __why __didn__'__t __Skulduggery __just __come __here __and__ '__watch __me__' __himself? __Why __did __he __tell __you __to __do__it?__"_

"_He got assigned to a new case. And also, a girl in black hovering over someone's roof with a pair of binoculars, spying on someone else is bad enough, but a talking _skeleton_ hovering over someone's roof with a pair of binoculars, spying on someone else is just too suspicious."_

"I see your point... A case, eh? _About what?"_

"_Some French guy and his American helper were found dead last night."_

"_Who is he?"_

"_They identified the corpse as Francisco Monet. He's apparently an illegal immigrant. Also a black market dealer. He's on the international most wanted list."_

"_Well all that's lovely, but what's that got to do with people like you?"_

"_Because he was apart of the magic community. Which makes his death apart of our business."_

"_So what else do you know?"_

"_Well, we know that magic was used. But rather little of it. Skulduggery was unable to identify what kind of magic, though. Which is a bit unfortunate. We haven't really found any clues other than that. The killer seemed to have to have made sure that they didn't leave a single trace of themselves."_

"_So what you're saying is finding them is going to be a little beyond impossible."_

"_Something along the lines of that, yes."_

Alex paused for a moment, thinking. She didn't want to sound too eager, so trying to sound as casual as possible, like she had just plucked the thought out of thin air, _"__So, __could _I _by __any __chance __help __you __with __the __investigation?__" _she asked.

After a while of silence, Valkyrie answered. _"__Highly __unlikely. __And __I __doubt __you__'__d __be __of __much __help, __either. __You__'__d __probably __just __get __in __our __way.__"_

Alex sagged, but didn't reply.

"_You're sagging, aren't you."_

"_I am."_

"_Why?"_

"_Why do you think?"_

"_Because I told you that you couldn't help?"_

"_Mmhm."_

"_Alex, no matter how much you sag and appear to have hurt feelings, I'm not going to say yes. Forget it. You're not helping. Anyway, you have other things going for you. You've got the Assassins Creed thing. You can't afford to start wanting to be a detective now. Not when you've got to do that or you'll just be moping around like some lost fart all day."_

"_Maybe you're right."_

"_I know I'm right."_

"_Yeah, __you __probably __are. __I __guess __I__'__ll __just __forget __that __I _ever _had __the __idea __in __the __first __place.__" _Alex sighed.

"_Yeah, you do that."_

"_Wait, what?"_

"_What?"_

"_When someone says something like that you have to say yes, it's the laws of communication."_

"_Then I must be some kind of rebel then."_

"_Oh__come__on!__" _Alex whined.

"_No. That's my final answer. Now I suggest you end this call and go back to hanging out with your friend. We're starting to sound a bit suspicious."_

"_Ugh, fine."_

And before Alex could say any more, Valkyrie hung up. Alex looked out the window and across to Valkyrie who just shrugged and went back to watching her. Alex shook her fist in the air for Valkyrie to see, then stormed off. The last glimpse she caught from the window was of Valkyrie doubling over in laughter. _"__I__'__ll__make__her__sorry.__" _she thought.  
>Alex stood outside the kitchen door, her face looking furious. She took a moment to breathe again, then forced a smile and walked back to sit with Ronny.<p>

"Who was it?" Ronny asked.

Alex hesitated, trying to come up with a reasonable excuse. "Uh… I guess I'd call them a 'friend'. Not really. An… annoying acquaintance, perhaps."

"Yeah, but _who_?"

Alex couldn't think of a fake name. The only words that came to her were; "A girl from school. I don't think you know her. Her names Stephanie, Stephanie Edgley."

Ronny looked astonished. "_Her_?" she asked, her voice clearly surprised.

"Y-yeah, her."

"But she's such a… weirdo."

"_So __she _does _know __who __she __is__… __Crap.__" _she Alex could think of doing was going along with whatever Ronny said."I _know_! But, like I said, she's just an annoying acquaintance."

"Why would she call _you_, of all people?"

"_Dammit. __Hard __question.__" _"Oh, uh… she was asking if our science test was this week or next week. She'd forgotten, figured I would know."

"Oh, well, I guess there's nothing wrong with that. How did she get your number?"

"I don't know myself. Probably from the class list. They still give us the other kids' numbers on it, right?"

"I think so. Not sure." Ronny took a second to jog her memory. "They used to do it when we were younger. I can't remember if they do it now, though."

"Must have."

"Yeah, must have."

Alex faked a look of boredom and started examining her fingernails, while waiting for Ronny to ever so agonizingly slowly finish the precious cup of tea. She hated lying to her. All she wanted to do at that moment was tell Ronny everything, but couldn't. She thought it would be better if she could somehow get her to go away. A diversion. Something that would force Ronny to suddenly leave. That way Alex wouldn't have to deal with lying to her. She thought of just asking her to go away, come back another time, but things were never that straightforward . There'd be questions. Questions she couldn't answer. And unanswered questions would arouse suspicion. And suspicion wasn't something she could afford from someone as close to her as Ronny.

She stifled a sigh and looked up at Ronny. "Ron, when you said we were going to 'go out', did you mean _this_?"

Ronny thought back a bit, then answered. "No, definitely not."

"Then why are we sitting here looking pretty?"

Ronny shrugged. "I don't know. You tell me."

"Because I'm waiting for _you_."

"Oh right. But I have to finish the _tea_. _Without_ breaking the mug."

"Forget the _tea_, let's _go_,"

"Yeah, OK. That's sounds good to me."

Ronny got up, her elbow gently scraping the mug. It toppled over, rolling off the edge of the table, while at the same time spilling the remains off the tea all over it. It plummeted, beginning it descent to the tiled floor. Suddenly, everything was in slow-motion, and the only things in the world were Ronny, the mug and the floor. "Noooooooooooooooooooo!" she shouted. Ronny dived for it, her arms splayed out before her in a desperate attempt at catching this now precious object, that's safety meant life or death. Her arms wrapped around the mug, hugging it close to her chest. She slid on the floor, stopping at Alex's feet. "Got it." She stood up to face a horrifying Alex, smiling nervously. "The mug's alright. Not a scratch on it." She handed it to Alex, holding it out for her to take.

Though her expression was unwavering. Alex did not smile, nor frown. Her face stayed completely emotionless. Her brow did not furrow. Nothing. But it was in her eyes, those striking hazel eyes, that it showed. A look that would drive a tsunami back into the depths, shivering with fear. A gaze that would make a tornado hurry back in the opposite direction. A glare that would make _onions_ cry. Something so terrifying, that it could bring all of natures catastrophes down on you, with nothing but a single glance. There was something about the way she looked at Ronny, which just made you want to curl up in a ball and cry. It was like she was stabbing her soul, killing it off slowly, basking in the glory of her screams. Alex's expression remained, and with each moment it felt like she was cutting chunks out of Ronny's with her bare hands.

Alex snatched the cup from Ronny, placing it firmly on the counter next to her. She rolled back her right sleeve up to her elbow, then she swung, and her palm slammed into Ronny's cheek with such force it could bring a house down.

Ronny stumbled back upon impact, losing her footing and tumbling to the ground. She clutched her cheek, crying out it pain. "Hey!" she shouted. "You said you'd only hurt me if I _broke_ the mug! The mug is clearly unharmed!"

Alex did not answer. That same petrifying look in her eyes said it all.

"What was that for!"

Finally, Alex spoke. "For fun, of course." Then she turned on her heel on walked away, grinning inwardly.

* * *

><p><strong>I may have forgotten to mention (Well I did in the old summary but I changed it now) that I based Alex on myself. Though I do stress <em>based<em>. She's not _exactly_ like me. I don't have any dye in my hair (But I would _like_ to, though) and I by no means have a black belt in martial arts. Things like that. Her personality is slightly different from mine, because she has to be going on adventures all the time and will soon be beating up bad guys. Unlike myself, who is a mild mannered girl who is addicted to computers and writes stories of what she wished she could be like and happens to be rather lazy. Oh, and seeing that she is at least _based_ on me, I'm going to have to go over some things about her appearance to match mine. You know in the first chapter when I said she had long blonde golden hair? I may have forgotten to stress _how_ long. My hair is ridiculously long, so hers has to be as well. Which means that her hair has to reach her waste, because my hair reaches my waste. (I have really long hair. I've been growing it since I was seven. It's so long that I have to tie it up every time I go to the toilet or it'll... land up being like toilet-paper or something. Which would be gross, because I really don't fancy the idea of getting pee in my hair.) So just remember that she has _really really really_ long hair. I'm planning on doing something with that later so I need you to realize how long it is for it to work.  
>Thank you for your time.<strong>

**PLEEEEEEEEAAAASSE REVIEW!**


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